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RHODE ISLAND 

HisTOEicAL Tracts 



NO. 19. 



STEPHEN HOPKINS, 



RHODE ISLAND STATESMAN 

A Study in the Political History of the 
Eighteenth Century. 



BY 



WILLIAM E. F(3STEK. 



P^RT ONE. 



■y 



RHODE ISLAND W'^ 



Historical Tracts. 



NO. 19. 




PROVIDENCE / 

SIDNEY S. RIDEIl. 

1884. 




Copyright Ijy 
S 1 1) N E Y S . K I U E K . 

1 S 7 8 . 



PiiOVIDLXCE PRESS fOMTASY, PKIXTEKS. 



STEPHEN HOPKINS 



RHODE ISLAND STATESMAN. 



STUDY IN THE POLITICAL HISTORY 



OF THE 



EIGHTEENTH CENTURY. 



BY 



WILLIAM E. FOSTER, 



P^RT ONE. 



PROVIDENCE 
SIDNEY S. RIDER. 

18 8 4. 



F^'^. ^ 



>? 



,u> 



•H^dF'j 



Copyright by 
SIDNEY S . RIDER, 
1883. 



TABLE OF CONTENTS. 



PAGE. 

Preface ....... xiii. 

ackko^ ledoment of ocligatioxs . . . xvu. 

chapter i. 
Intboductoky, . . . . • . •. 1 

Contrast between Rhode Island in 1700 and that state 
in 1799.- Due partly to natural growth and partly to in- 
dividual effort.— Names o[ some whose influence was a 
factor in this change.— Hopkins's position among these. 

CnAPTER II. 

Ancestry and fajht.y c6nnections, ... 9 

His birth.- Thomas Tlopkins, the emigrant ancestor. 
—The Arnold family.— Major William Hopkins.— Tlie 
Wliipple family.- -William ITopkins, Jr.— The Smith, 
^^'ickendcn, and Wilkinson families.— Marriage of Wil- 
liam Uopkins and lluth Wilkinson.— Their children.— 
Ancestral traits represented in Stephen Hopkins. 

CHAPTER III. 
Earia' influences, [1707-30] ..... ^55 
Lack of means of communication in the up-countrj- 
settlements.— The lack of means of culture among the 



VI STEPHEN HOPKINS. 

tliird goiu'ialion of New Englanders.— Lack of .school 
facilities in IMiode I.sland.— Stephen Hopkins's faniilj 
snriouiidings.— An early "circulating library."— His 
efforts at self-culture.— The valuable discipline of Lis 
training in surveying.— The appearance of the commer- 
cial instinct.— The Quaker training of his early home. — 
His marriage and start in life as a farmer. 

CHAPTEK IV. 

Entkance on public life as a "COUNTKYMEM- 

BEi;," [1730-42], ...... 03 

His inherited disposition for public life.— Official con- 
nection with the town of Scituate. — In the General 
Assembly as a "country member."— The mea.sures of 
the Wanton administrations. — First connection with 
Newport.— His home life at Scituate. Gradual with- 
drawal of his family fnmi Scituate. — Concentration of 
his own interests at Providence.— Removal to Provi- 
dence in 1742. 

CHAPTER V. 

A CITIZEN OF Providence, [1742-70], .... 8 

Stephen Hopkins the most distinguished native of 
Providence.— His capacity for retaining his hold on asso- 
ciations once formed. — His peculiar identification with 
the interests of Providence. — His marked agency in 
developing its commercial growth.— The town of Provi- 
dence in 1742. 

Tlie commercial development of Providence. — Hop- 
kins's corrtH't forecast of the direction taken by it. — 



I 



TABLE OF CONTENTS. VI 1 

The lack of custom-liouse records before 1790.— iSteplieii 
Hopkins's early and unbroken connection with the 
Brown's,, the "four brothers."— Moses Brown's com- 
mercial records of twenty-five years.— The predomin- 
ating share of the Brown and Hopkins families in the 
conmieree of this period.— Hopkins's attention to the 
needs of tlie growing connnerce of the town.— A better 
harbor front needed. 

The question of hi(/hi':a>js and sti-eets.— Better com- 
munication with tlie interior towns needed. — More 
intelligent internal arrangements needed for the satis- 
factory development of the town.— The new policy as to 
lands and streets. 

Other enterprises.— His connection with the establish- 
ment of the public market; with rebuilding Weybosset 
Bridge; and with an early system of insurance. 

Education in Providence.— Kis efforts in behalf of 
public education. 

Libraries in Frovidence. —B.is connection with the 
establishment of the Providence Library, " to promote 
useful knowledge." 

His literary labors.— His historical researches.— His 
political writings.— The Providence Gazette established. 



IS 



iSeveral FrankUn ideas.— Two other '"Franklin ideas 
introduced at Providence; the post-office and the fire 
department. 



Vlll STEPHEN HOPKIKS. 

Family conneciiO«s.— Changes in his family, from 
1742 to 1755. 

Politicdl connections. — His connection with political 
life (luring this period.— The questions at issue in the 
General Assembly. 

Connection vith the courts.— l\\>i service as Chief- 
justice. 

His influence.— iHswes growing out of tlie develop- 
ment of the town and of the colony. 

CHAPTER VI. 

The statesmanship of the Ai.p.axv coxopess, [1754]. 155 

The significance of this conference. — The four pre- 
dominating political ideas.— Self-government the earliest. 
— Its extreme development in TJhode Island. — The 
ir.odification due to connnercial connections. — Tluit due 
to tlie agitation oC boundary disputes.— The accession of 
the five border towns in 1747.— Liberalizing tendency of 
the piinting-]>ress, tlie libraries, and the movement 
towards education.- Necessity of combinatioji for mili- 
tary defence.— The system of colonial congresses.— Pur- 
pose of tlie home government in relation to the Albany 
congress.— A plan of union abeady conceived by Frank- 
liu.— Tlie emiuence of tlie delegates to this congress.— 
Appieheusions of (he cbarter colonies in relalion to 
their charters —Tbe |)osili(m of tlie loyalist elenunt.— 
Fraulclin's plan agieed to by the delegates.— Stephen 
Hopkins apparently the only active collaborator of 
Franklin.— I'oints of resemblance between Franklin and 



TABLE OF CONTENTS. IX 

Hopkins.— Hopkfns's intelligent support of the princi- 
ple of colonial union.— The excited opposition to the 
plan in Rhode Island.— Stephen Hopkins's pamphlet in 
defence of the action of tlie congress.— The pamphlet 
published in reply by "Philolethes."— Rejection of the 
plan of union in every colony and by the home govern- 
ment.— The remarkable extent to which this plan was 
the prototype of the constitution of 1787.— Stephen Hop- 
kins's exceptional service in rendering its principles 
familiar and approved in Rhode Island. 



PUBLISHER'S NOTE. 



It was the iutoutioii of the publisher to bring the First Series- 
of the Rhode Island Historical Tracts to a close with the 20th 
number, iu which Tract it was his intention to have made cor- 
rection of such errors and omissions as had been printed or left 
out, and which was also to have contained an index to the entire 
series. The verj' great enlargement of Mr. Foster's monograph 
making it far too large for a single number, necessitates the 
printing of it in two parts. It will thus form numbers 19 and 20 
of the present series, and the index and other papers referred to 
will be issued in a closing Tract. It is the further intention of 
the publisher to begin the publication of a second series of 
these Tracts immediately after the close of the present series. 



1 



PREFACE. 



Tliere are several reasons why a publication like the present 
one is a desideratum. The study of Stephen Hopkins's career 
shows it to be connected in a very marked degr^ with the 
whole political development of the century in which he lived. 
At the same time, scarcely one of his contemporaries is a less 
familiar character to the young men of this generation. Yet 
there are the best of reasons why this is so. Not only has no 
published biography of him been accessible, — beyond the most 
meagre of sketches,' — but the historical student is deprived- of 
the opportunity of access to his papers and memoranda. Nor 
is this deprivation by any means a slight one. Stephen Hopkins, 
like his distinguished compatriots, Franklin, the Adams's, and 
others, was constantly busy with his pen duriug the greater part 
of his life. He left behind him, at his death, an invaluable col- 
lection^ of papers and discussions, not merely in the form of 

1 See Appendix A, for mention of tlie most important of these. 

■> These papers were lost in 1815. In tile great storm of September in tliat 
year, sa3-s John Howland, " tlie tide swept througli the house where they were 
lodged, and they were carried olT and lost in the multitude of waters." (Stone's 
" Life and recollections of John Howland," p. 47). 

.3 " He left," says John Howland, " a large trunk of papers, connected with 
the transactions of his public life." (Stone's "John Howland," p. ir). 
B 



XIV STKI'HKN HOPKINS. 

coiTcspoiulenco,' but of reports, nieinoriiiidii, iiud notes, benriiiy; 
on such topics as the stamp-act discussions, tlie Albany con- 
gress; the various plans of union subsequently discussed; tlie 
gradual progress towards armed resistance on land and sea; and 
the equally gradual assumption of national powers, by tlie col- 
onies acting together. Some small portion of this material, not 
collected witli the rest, remains to us.'^ The greater part is a 
total loss. It is not to be wondered at tliat '• tlie oblivion 
Avliieh," saj;^s Mr. Edmund Quincy,-' " is so swift to swallow up 
American reputations," should have seemed to be in a fair way 
to await Stephen Hopkins's name. 

Yet, though late, it may not l)e too late, aiiproximately to 
counteract this tendency. That which is now possible is, merely 
to construct from the widely scattered material of his time, 
something which shall serve as a partial representation of his 

1 'I'liosf li'ttfi-s comprised CDrrosiioiKlcncc with \Vas!iiiii;toii ami .lettVrsoii, 
.Io)in Aflanis and .Sainui'l Adams, ratiick lli-nry, llioliard Ilt-nrv Let', and 
Henjainin Franklin; — in tact, with most (li those wlio were It-adi-rs in the 
stlri'ing events of Ids time. AVith nio-t of these men his intercourse dates 
back several years before they met in tlie (didinental Congress, during winch 
time they were hi active connection with the committees of correspondence. 
With Franklin his intimate association date(l l)ack to at least as early a point 
as tlie Albany congress, in 17.54. 

2 .See .Vpiienilix 11, lor a meuioraiKhim of sucli writings of Stephen Hop- 
kins as are ikjw acci'ssilile. 

:l .Mr. (^uincy, in tlie preface to his father's Life, says that, " having met 
with well-educated persons wlio had never heanl of I'ishej- .Vines, and even 
with geiitlemeu of the law wliose notions of Samuel Uexter wiTe nebulous to 
the last degree," lie nearly despaired of his fatlier's name surviving, U^.iincy's 
" Life of .losiah Quincy,'' p. iii). 



rREFAcr:. xv 

life and work. To bring togetlier, in their proper relations and 
in consecutive order, tlie incidental allusions to him, — in official 
documents, in state papers, in the general and special histories 
of liis time, in verbal tradition wiicn it can be relied on as trust- 
worthy, and in the lives and writings of his contemporaries, — 
is the ol)jcct of the present publication. That this work should 
not have been left until our own generation, to be tluis iuade- 
quatel}' accomplished, needs no argument to show. It should 
have been executed when his career was still fresh in the minds 
of men who were contemporary with him. Nor should it have 
been left to be undertaken by one wlio, like the present writer, 
is not a native of Rhode Island. Fully recognizing the fact that 
few not born and brought up in Rhode Island can adequately ap- 
preciate in all their bearings, tlie nearly unique conditions of 
society characterizing the earlier history of this colony, the ' 
writer has gratefully availed himself of the valuable assistance 
so courteously attbrded him by those wliose acquaintance with the 
details of various portions of the subject is intimate and com- 
prehensive.^ Late as it is, however, and necessarily limited as 
are the opportunities for treating the subject, the present work 
will serve to render somewhat tardy justice to a man whose 
services to his colony, and to the nation, as well, were such as 
entitle him to no unimportant position among the founders of 
the republic. 

No apology, certainly, is needed for the minuteness r)f the 
references in the foot-notes. More, perhaps, than in any other 
work of similar scope, it is important that the reader should 

1 Set- the "Acknowledgment of obligations," on pages xvii.— xx. 



XVI STEPHEN HOrKINS. 

have " chapter ami verse "' as the authority for tlie statements 
which lie liere finds. Tlie tield is very nearly " virgin soil;" and 
those citations will serve, to (juote lYom another writer, "to 
help others in testing " his own statements, "and in prosecut- 
ing similar studios for themselves." 

The subject is not wholly a new one to the author, but has 
engaged his attention, to a considerable extent, for several years 
past. While he has endeavored to treat his subject in the spirit 
of a judicial inquirer, rather than of an advocate, yet the result 
of his researches has been to heighten his respect for a man 
who, with many limitations, and with marked faults even, was 
nevertheless an iuliuence and a power for gooii, iu so many 
directions. 

Pkovidence I'unLic Library, 
December 1, 18<S3. 



ACKNOWLEDGMEXT OF OP,LIGATIOXS. 



The author in the prosecution of his researches has found 
himself at every step placed under indebtedness by the courtesy 
and thoughtful interest of others. It would be impossible liere 
to mention all the instances of this kind, but some of them 
require special acknowledgments. 

For original papers and letters, he has been constantly placed 
under obligation to the following members of Governor Hop- 
kins's family and of allied families: James Tillinghast, Esq., 
Miss Sophie L. Tillinghast, Miss Ruth Hopkins Smith, and Mr. 
^ Albert Holbrook. The two last mentioned have rendered 

'j-\ especially valuable co-operation. He is also largely indebted to 

Mr. C. W. Hopkins and Mr. E. !S. Hopkins, of Providence, 
and Professor Samuel M. Hopkins, of Auburn, N. Y. VaUial)le 
papers also have been placed in his hands l)y Mr. Sidneys. Kider, 
his publisher, whose familiarity with the history of this state 
has been of constant service, and wliose invaluable Rhode 
Island collection of papers, i)aniphlets, reports, etc., has been 
placed freely at his disposal. He is also deeply indebted for 
copies and originals of otlier important papers, to Hon. 
William V. Shellield, Mr. William T. Shellield, Jr., and James 



XVUl ^TEl'lir.N IIOPKIXS. 

Eddy Maurau, Esq.. of Newport ; to Dr. Tlioiiui.s Addis Einmel, 
and Henry T. Drowne. Esq., of New Yoi'k; to ]\fv. Dr. Thi^nas 
Staflbrd Drownc, of Garden City, N. Y. ; to Mr. Richard Battey. 
of VVoousocket, R. I ; to Mr. J. N. Arnold, of Hamilton, R. I. ; 
to F. W. VauLilian, Esq , of Boston ; and to Nathaniel I'aine, 
E<q., of Worcester, Mass. 

Ill the investigation of nui)ul)lished jKipiMs in the custody of 
national, slate, county, and nninicipal authorities, he has also 
been placed under great obligations. lie would especially re- 
turn thanks to Theodore F. D wight, Esq., of the Rolls Office, in 
the Department of State, Washington, I). C. ; to Hon. J. M. 
Addenian, Secretary of State of Rhode Island ; to Dr. Edward 
Strong and David I'ulsifer, Esq., of the Massachusetts 
Archives, uiulcr the charge of the Secretary of State of 
Massachusetts; to Chief-justice Durfee, and Justice Stiness, of 
the Rhode Inland Supreme Court, and the clerks of the Rhode 
Island Supreme Court autl Providence County Court of Common 
Pleas, Messrs Charles Blake and Geo. E. Webster; to George 
W. Nichols, Esq., Clerk of the Massachusetts Supreme Court, 
Boston, Mass. ; and to Major W. T. Harlow, Assistant-clerk of 
the Worcester County Court of Common Pleas, Worcester, Mass. 
Also to Mr. F. A. Williamson, of the Registry of Deeds, in the 
City Hall, Providence, and to Mr. George T. Hart, of this city, 
for exceedingly valuable co-operation in the tracing of land 
records. 

For access to the valuable papers of President Stiles at New 
Haven, the author is indebted to the courtesy of Mr. F. B. Dex- 
ter, of New Haven. For similar courtesies in connection with 
both manuscrijit and pamphlet collections, he has been placed 



t 



L 



ACKNOWLEDCxMENT OF OBLIGATIONS. XIX 

under repeated obligations to Dr. Samuel A. Green, of tlie 
Massachusetts Historical Society. He would acknowledge also 
similar courtesies from Mr. John Ward Dean, of the New Ei^^,- 
land Historic Genealogical Society, in Boston; and Mr. Edmund 
M. Barton, of the American Antiquarian Society, at Worcester, 
Mass. The resources of the Rhode Island Historical Society 
have of course l)een in uninterrupted use, not only as regards 
the volumes in it which are in oidinary cii'culation, but the 
manuscripts, re[)orls, and pamplik'ts, both bound and unbound, 
the consultation of which has been of so constant and essential 
service. The author is uuder great obligations not only to the 
librarian, Mr. Amos Perry, but to the library committee of the 
Society, for well appreciated efforts to place tiie resources of 
the collection at his disjwsal. 

Nor is he unindebted to the custodians in cliai'ge of other 
libraries than those of historical societies; — particularly to the 
librarians of Brown University and the Providence Athenjeum, 
Dr. H. A. Guild, and Mr. Daniel Beckwith; to the librarian of 
the Redwood Library, Newport, Mr. B. F. Thurston; to Messrs. 
Knapp and CUnnmings of the Boston rul)lic Library; and to the 
ever-obliging librarian of the Boston Athenasum, Mr. Charles 
A. Cutter. He is also very largely indebted to Professor Justin 
Winsor, the liljrarian of Harvard University, for repeated cour- 
tesies; to Mr. Charles A. Nelson, of the Astor Lil)rary, New 
York; and to Mr. A. R. Spofford, librarian of the Library of 
Congress, and Mr. L. T. Solberg, of the same library. He is 
indebted also to Messrs. Nicholson and Madan, of tlie Bodleian 
Library, Oxford, for most courteous assistance in identifying 



XX STEPHEN llOl'KINS. 

the atiUiorsliip of some of tlie publications attributed to Gover- 
nor Hopkins. The Hon. Jolui 11. Bartlett, whose acquaintance 
with tlie early history of Kliode Ishmd is minute and compre- 
hensive, luis in repeated instances most courteously allowed the 
author the privilege of consulting the John Carter Brown Li- 
brary, that pricelessly valuable depository of the materials of 
American history. 

The author is also indebted for various similar favors to 
Professor William Ganunell, Messrs. Samuel and John Osborne 
Austin, Charles Warren I^ippitt, Esq., Mr. C. F. I'hillips, Rev. 
E. M. Stone, and William B. Wceden, Esq., of Providence; 
Messrs. George C. Mason, K. H. Tilley, and C. E. Hammett, Jr., 
of Newport, K. 1. ; Mr. Erastus Richardson, of Woonsockct, R. 
I. ; the late Rev. C. C. Beaman, of Bostun, Mass. ; Col. Thomas 
Wentworth Iligginson and Mr. Horace E. Scudder, of Cam- 
bridge, Mass. ; and Mr. John Andrew Doyle, of the University 
of Oxford. 

Mr. Henry C. Dorr, wliose "Planting and grow^th of Provi- 
dence" has placed so many readers under obligation to liim l)y 
its fascinatingly vivid reproduction of tlic life of this town in its 
early years, has repeatedly laid the present writer under still 
farther and especial indebtedness, by valuable suggestions, in- 
formation, and council. 

In all other cases not here expressly enumerated, the author 
begs that those who have so generously forwarded his under- 
taking will receive liis sincere thanks. 



CHAPTER T. 



INTRODUCTORY. 



The changes which the eighteenth century wit- 
nessed in America were essentially in the nature of a 
political development. Nowhere was this develop- 
ment more striking than in Rhode Island. Between 
the Rhode Island, indeed, of the year 1700, and the 
same territory in the year 1709, there is a difference 
that is well-nio-h fundamental. It is a dilference 
between a feeble and sparsely populated colony on 
the one hand ; — and, on the other, a prosperous, 
populous, well-administered state, in a national 
union of local governments. 

In 1700 is to be seen a community with but slight 
coujmunicationi of any kind with the other North 

1 Their " highways," says Mr. Dorr, " had been with a view to prevent the 
escape of cattle, ratlier than to Oder any temptations to travellers." (Dorr's 
" Planting and growth of Trovidence," R. I. Historical Tract, Xo. 15, p. 123.) 



1 .STKPHKX HOPKINS. 

American colonies ;i a settlement which, with its tliin 
shell of territoiy formed around Narragansett Bay, 
was persistently encroached upon on three sides ; 
scarcely evtui united in itself;- with hut the eml)ers 
of government at homo ;■' and with hut a shadow of 
influence ahroad ; with only the shghtest commercial 
or fishing or trading interests, which would contrih- 
ute to the formsition of closer relations with its neiijh- 
hors ; — in short, with every tendency to nationality 
suppressed, and every tendency to separatism em- 
phasized and intensitied. 

In 1791) is to be seen a locally administered gov- 
ernment, yet holding its equal and symmetrical posi- 
tion under a central authority ; with its l)oundary 

1 It liii'l not bi^en admitteii to tin- New Eiiglaiid conCeleraey, which liaii 
comu to an end sixteen years before, (16S4), after an existence of more than 
forty years . 

2 Only as recently as 16S(), tlie advent of Sir Edniund Andros, to quote tlie 
language of a witty secretary of state, " had acted as a solvent, to throw the 
Rhode Island composition back into its original elements." (See also Arnold's 

• " Rhode Island," I. •1S7-S8.) 

3 In the State Paper OfBce at London is a letter written in lOlW by the Earl 
of Bellomont, the royal governor, describing th s government of Rhode Island 
as " the most irregular and illegal in their administration that ever any Eng- 
lish government was." Compare Arnold's " IJhode Island," I. 551. That the 
colony " was not utterly crushed," Mr. Arnold adds, " is the greatest marvel in 
the history of Rhode I.sland in the seventeenth century." (p. -Wa.) 



INTUODUCTOKY. 6 

lines at last so fixed and determined that all the years 
which have since elapsed have wrought but slight 
changes! in them ; with a population- increased 
nearly seven-fold during the century ; with rapidly 
growing wealth ; with flourishing foreign and domes- 
tic commerce ;^ with a system of manufactures still iu 
their infancy, but giving abundant promise for the 
near future ;'» with the public interest iu public edu- 

1 The last step in the settlement of the boundary questions of the last two 
centuries was taken on the 22d of March of the present year, (1883), when an 
act was passed by the Rhode Island General Assembly, which provides for 
straightening the northern boundary line, by the transfer of a trifling quantity 
of land to Massachusetts. (Public laws, Jan. sess., 1883, chap. 342). 

2 The population of Rhode Island was estimated at 10,000 in 1702 (Report 
of Society for the Propagation of the Gospel); and in 1800 the United States 
census made it 69,122. The population of Providence is given as 1,446 in 1708, 
and 7,614 in 1800. (" Manual of the state of Rhode Island," 1882-83, p. 78-80). 

3 Some commercial statistics are cited in Arnold's " Rhode Island," II. 558; 
among others, those of the River Machine Company, of Providence, stating 
that " there is a greater numbef of vessels belonging to this port than to New 
York," and " that it is a place of more navigation than any of its size in the 
union." This was in 1790, and the number continued to increase until just 
previous to the war of 1812. The figures given in this petition should, how- 
ever, be compared with Tables I. and II., in Pitkin's " Statistical view of the 
commerce of the United States," p. 4.35, 4.38, 411. These tables show that in 
1793, the shipping of this state was decidedly devoted to the coasting trade. 

4 In 1812 there were 53 cotton factories within a circuit of 30 miles around 
Providence, some of them being in JIassachusetts. White's " Samuel Slater," 
p. 18S. 



4 STEPHEN HOPKINS. 

cation iiewiy awakened ; with a collegei drawing to 
itself and to the state at the same time, the alwaj^s 
attendant consequences of literary and general cul- 
ture in the community ; with a spirit and an outlook 
no longer narrowed to the petty concerns of a single 
colony, but breathing a grateful pride in the historic 
achievements of a nation of Americans ; with cordial 
relations now established between this state and its 
sister states, relations which had been cemented by 
the bloody resistance to a common foe through which 
they had together passed; finally, with a common in- 
terest in that national government under whose pro- 
tection all the states, with their peculiar traditions 
and varied individual history, were now together 
content to flourish. 

The progress is a striking one ; and the progress 
in this colony towards nationality is almost wholly 
without a parallel elsewhere; for in no other colony 
were there such difficulties to be overcome as in 
Rhode Island. 

When we seek to ascertain the causes and tenden- 
cies underlying this development, we can by no 



1 Founded 1764. 



INTRODUCTORY. 5 

means leave out of account the operation of natural 
and political laws ; for these had their due weight. 
But at the same time we cannot fail to recognize the 
direct, positive, personal influence of individual pub- 
lic men. Not wholly a creation, yet not wholly a 
natural growth, this political phenomenon is ade- 
quately considered only when we recognize both 
phases of the subject. And if we look for names of 
individual men, whose careers were intimately asso- 
ciated with this development at different stages of its 
progress, we shall find more than one noteworthy 
instance. 

The name of Samuel \Vard,i whose strong, ardent, 
effective interest in bringing different sections of the 
country to unite in a general government was a liv- 
ing force ; that of Nathanael Greene,'^ whose intimate 
association with Washington, and commanding in- 
fluence at home must be recognized as a most effec- 
tive agency in bringing his native state into con- 

1 His career has been lucidly traced by Professor William Gammell, iu his 
"Life of Samuel Ward," (Sparks's " Library of American biography," 2d 
series, IX. 231-35SJ. 

2 His services have been recounted iu the fascinating pages of his grandson, 
(" Life of Nathanael Greene," by George Washington Greene). 



6 STEPHEN HOPKINS. 

certed action with the others; that of his kinsman, 
Governor William Greene, the second of the name; 
that of Nicholas Cooke, the " war governor " of the 
revolution, who, in the words of a well known 
Avritcr, " seemed to rise with the spirit of the da}',"' 
and in the performance of faithful service to his own 
colony, reached a 1)etter conception of the general 
welfare of the United Colonies; and that of William 
EUer}',- the devoted representative of Rhode Island 
in the Continental Congress throughout the entire 
war, with the single exception of the lirst year; — 
these are the names which are at once suggested. Nor 
should the public spirited efforts of .Mannings he 
overlooked, nor those of the men who with him con- 
tributed to the final result of bringing Rhode Island 
into the union ; — the intelligent counsel of Bradford ; 
the effective influence of Jal)ez Bowen : the fiery 
eloquence of Varnum, Avhose argument in the case of 

1 The late John Howland. (See Stone's " John Howhind," p. 42.) 

2 See his life, by Professor E. T. Channing, of Harvard College. (Sparks's 
" Librarj- of American biography," 1st series, VI. S5-lo0). 

3 President Manning, though not born in Pthode Island, was the means of 
rendering the state more than one distinguished service. (See GuDd's " Life, 
times, and correspondence of James Manning," p. .3~'-82, 390^07, 416-19). 



INTKODUCTOKY. 7 

Trevett versus AVeedeu had a profound effect ; the 
patriotic exertions of the Browns, the "four brothers," 
whose name was a synonym for public spirit ; the 
faithful eftbrts of Benjamin Bourne ; and the well- 
directed and untiring services of Theodore Foster, 
destined to be Rhode Island's senator in the first 
national congress, for thirteen 3ears of continuous 
service. It was under the impetus of their united 
efforts that Rhode Island was tided over her last and 
most critical danger, and brought finally into the 
union. Nor should the name of Governor Samuel 
Cranston be omitted, that sevcnteenth-centurv STov- 
ernor, Avhose period of oiiice, by twenty-eight suc- 
cessive re-elections,^ extended far into the eight- 
eenth ; and to whose firmness and sagacity are per- 
haps to be ascribed the first of that series of influ- 
ences which made the eighteenth centurv in Rhode 
Island a period of development. 

But any consideration of this kind which should 
fail to include the name of Stephen Hopkins would 
be conspicuously incomplete. His service was ren- 

1 First elected, 3Ia7, 169S. Died iu oflSce, April, 1727. ("Records of the 
colony of Rhode Island,'^ etc., III. 333; IV. 387.) 



8 STEPHEN HOPKINS. 

dercd for a longer timei and was more wide-reaching 
in its influence, than that of any other man. He was 
the contemporary of all these men, as he had been of 
the fathers of most of them. More than one of them 
looked to him as a political instructor as well as an 
intimate friend. And, as will be more particularly 
shown hereafter, although his own life closed live 
years before the adoption of the United States con- 
stitution by Rhode Island, the conclusion is not an 
unwarranted one that in a peculiar sense that act 
was the crown of his work and influence. When we 
consider his unusually prolonged life, (from 1707 to 
1785), and see how he touched the life of the colony 
at the beginning of the century, in the middle, and 
near the close, we need scarcely hesitate to pronounce 
him the representative Rhode Islander of the eight- 
eenth century. 

1 He was actually in public life, from 1731 to 1780, nearly fifty years. 



CHAPTER II. 



A.NCESTRY AND FAMILY CONNECTIONS. 



Stephen Hopkins was born in Providence, i R. I., 

1 It is proper to cite the grounds for this statement as to Governor Hopkins's 
birthplace ; varying as it does, from every other printed statement which has 
come under the observation of the writer. Of tlie writers mentioned in Appen - 
dix A, as giving the facts of his life and career, all but two say that he was 
born "in Scituate, Rliode Island." One, (Spaulding), says " Scituate, Mass.," 
an evident error. The remaining writer, Mr. Albert Holbrook, the painstak- 
ing author of the "Genealogy of one line of the Hopkins family," repeatedly 
referred to in this volume, says (p. 12, 1.3), "in Cranston." He does not, how- 
ever, indicate more definitely what the locality is. Fortunately we are not 
without the testimony of Governor Hopkins, himself, in this matter, in a record 
of his family. Moses Brown, as he tells us, found "among his papers, in his own 
handwriting a manuscript record of his family, (tlie Hopkins family), dated 
Feb. 3, 1754," (Letter of Moses Brown to Robert Wain, in 182.3). The origin- 
al of this paper is not in existence, but a copy of it, in the hand-writing of 
Senator Theodore Foster, is preserved in the archives of the Rhode Island 
Historical Society. (Foster Papers, VI. 12). Governor Hopkins here makes the 
distinct statement: " Stephen Hopkins, of Providence, in the county of Provi- 
dence, was born in Cranston," by which of course he means to designate some 
portion of the early town of Providence included in the territory set off under 
the name of Cranston only four months later, (June H, 1754), and even then 



STErUEN HOrivlT^S. 

10 



..vpv not merely a 
,,„,,, „f .hat in .701 «->>^^^^,^^^,„.,,„ its 

eorpovalc luii.ls , tl.ou^ 

neighboring town.^ ^^^^ .,„,, ,„d h.s 

Thvongh his lathe>, ^^ > ^^^^^_^^^^, f,,„ the 
„olhev,RnthVViUunso,. ^^ 

toV.lies of Hopluns, ^"^,^,^^„A^^.^^^- 

„, 11 IS next "■!"""' , ,-r,,mlv.«ttl>« 

., «„. .e„U.r, M. «-• ^'l ,,„. ,<,..,„, ., ».e '^Z<>., won. 
.,..e «t.». !<«<'• "f "; *,„ Appe.u.U D). «"'» "' " , „, „„ „,a «t 

,, a veritable -Uve of r> , ,,,e.dy cited, U : "on 

Monday. ^^- •^^;;!:\7rt:r papers, VI. V.). ^^ ^,,,e. 

day of March, 1-0, . ( ^^^^^,^ f,,„, .v.U be g ^^^^^^^ „f 

^ ^"^^"^^:r;::i^-orrespo.ded^aayt. -^^^^^^^ ^,. , 
3 Theto^n t P'OV ^^^^ ^^^^_^^ ^^,,„ ,,e first dn..o 
Providence, until r • iocorporatlon 

col. Bccords, IV. 44.-^^ ^^ ^ .^^ritory i-^"<^<^^;;^^; 3, , .It re-^n- 

, The estate in "i-^^-; ^^,,f,,,,. ,K. I. Col. Records. ^ • 3. )• 



onUetovvnofOrau....y ^^^_ 

„exed as the 0th ward, June 1, 



ANCESTRY AND FAMILY CONNECTIONS. 11 

out exception ; families, moreover, which were con- 
nected in three' of these instances with the settlement 
as oiiirinallv made under Ro^^er Williams. 

His paternal ancestor,- Thomas Hopkins, 3 was 
born in England in 1016." The precise locality has 
not been ascertained, yet his [Thomas's] motherV 
family were residents of Cheselbourne, in Dorset- 
shire,*^ where her ancestors, for several generations 

1 Arnold, Wickenden, iind Hoiikins. (R. I. Col. Record.^, I. 21, 2i). 

2 Three generations back. Thomas Hopkins,' William* Hopkins,^ 
William Hopkins,^ Stephen Hopkins.^ See Aj)pendix C. 

3 Thomas stands in the foregoing list as of the first American generation. 
His father, William Hopkins, never came to this country. No connection is 
known to exist between this family ami that of Stephen Hopkins of the Plym- 
outh Colony, (Assistant, 163:5-36), or that of Governor Kdward Hopkins of 
the Connecticut Colony. 

i He was "baptized, April 7, 1610." The record of his birth Is not found. He 
had two sisters, Frances and Elizabeth. (Arnold fiimiW recordf, Xeiv- Eng- 
land Historical and Genealogical Register, XXXIII. 428). 

5 Joanna Arnold. 

6 It is interesting to notice that in the case of Providence, as in that of 
what may almost be called its parent town, Salem, some of the best known of 
the original settlers were from the southwestern countiesof England,— Dorset- 
shire, Wiltshire, Somerset, and Devonshire. This locality was the home of 
the Endicotts, the Woodberrys, the Dodges, and the Halclis, of Salem, and of 
the Greenes, the Carpenters, the Arnolds, and possibly the Hopkins's, of Provi- 
dence. (See "Historical collections of the Essex Institute," XVII. Gleanings 
from English records about New England families. Also, Savage's "Genea 
logical dictionary.") 



as 



]2 STHPHEN HOrKINS. 

had lield estates.' The paternal line of Thoma? 
Hopkins has been traced no farther hack in England 
than to the bare name of his father, William Hop- 
kins. ^ Of the family of his mother, Joanna Arnold, ^ 
more is known ; her line having been followed back 
through five generations of Arnolds in Dorset and 
Somerset, to Koger Arnold,* in the fifteenth century, 
who appears to have been of Welsh origin. The 
Arnold family became, on removing across the 
Atlantic,' one of the best known families of Rhode 
Island, identified with its history' in each successive 
generation. -"^ 

1 K. E. Hist. Gen. Reg., XXXIII. 4:j4-.35. 

2 Hopkins genealogy, p. 7. 

3 Joanna Arnold, " baptized the 30' of Xovenibei' in the yeare 1577 " mar- 
ried William Hopkins, sonietime before l(il4. X. E. Hist. Gen. Register, 
XXXIII. 427. 

4 Roger Arnold ;i Thomas Arnold, = married Agnes, daughter of .sir 
Kichard AVarnestead, Knt.; Richard Arnold,^ of Street, in Somerset, mar- 
ried Emmote Young; Kichard Arnold,-' of Jlilton Abbas, Dorsetshire; 
Thomas Arnold, s (Cheselboiirne), married Alice Giilley, daughter of Jolm 
Gulley, of Cheselbourne; Joanna ArnoUI," baptized 30 Nov., 1577. (A". E. 
hist. Gen. Reg., XXXIII. 434-35.) The family record just cited indicates also 
the supposed Welsh line of descent; (p. 433-34). 

5 In the 8th generation from the Tliomas Arnold, just mentioned, (the 

father of Joanna), is the late Samuel G. .A.rnold, the distinguished liistorian of . ,i' 

tlie state. 



ANCESTIIY AND FAMILY CONNECTIONS. 13 

Authentic records are silent as to the circumstan- 
ces of Thomas Hopkins's life in England. They are 
no less silent as to the time and manner of his 
removal to America ;' the first information that we 
have of him locating him at Providence as early as 
1(538.- Whether he was married on the other side 

1 Savage's statement, ("Genealogical dictionary," II. 402) :—" Thomas, 
Providence, IGll, luul foil. [owed] Roger Williams in 103() from riymouth," is 
strangely beside the facts ; nor does it appear who furnislicd him with this 
information. See Appundi-vc E for the examination of other statements of 
Savage. ' 

2 At the assignment of the fifty.four home lots in 1G38, (from the territory 
now bounded by Olney, Hope, Wickeiiden, and North and South Main Streets), 
the entry of his name shows him to have been already on the ground. (R. I. 
Col. Records, I. 21). With him at Providence at the same assignment were 
his brother-in-law, William Man, (husband of his sister, Frances), and his 
cousin, William Arnold. Also, Arnold's son, Benedict Arnold; his son-in-law, 
"William Carpenter; and John Greene, whose grandson married his grand- 
daughter. As* already indicated, they were mostly from the same quarter of 
England. Whether they all came in t!ie same vessel with William Arnold, 
(who "sett sayle ffrom Dartmouth in Old England, the first of May, * * * 1635," 
arriving in New England, .lune 24 of the same year), there is nothing to indi- 
cate. The entry just cited is from a manuscript record of Benedict Arnold, 
printed in the .V. E. IJist. Gen. R,f/. XX.XIII. 428. From this and other 
accounts, it would appear that he first . settled at Hingham, near Boston, but 
came to Providence in the spring of 1030. (A'^. £. Uist. Gen. Reg. XXXIII. 
436, 428). 



14 STEPHEN HOPKINS. 

of the Atlantic or thls,i the name and family of his 
wifo,^ the dates of his marriage and of the births of 
his children, 2 can ho only matters of conjecture. 
Ilis children appear to have been three in number; 
two sons, William- and Thomas;- and a third, prob- 
ably a son, 2 whose name is not preserved. Ilis 
" home lot," as indicated bv the assis-nment in 10383 
occupied the territory now partiall}' traversed by 
Williams St. But he soon afterwards acquired an 
estate at Louisquisset, in what is now Lincoln,'' and 
here he lived, in all prol)al)ilit3%-^ until the outI)reak 
of King Philip's war,'' in 1675. Here, doubtless, 
his children were born, but of this there is no record. 
Were it not for the occasional entries of his name on 

1 Mr. Holbrook's conjecture is that " he married, probably about tlie year 
104y," at I'rovidi'iicp. (Uoplcius genealogy, p. 9). Tlie records are silent. 

2 See Appendix E. .3 R. I. Col. Hecords, I. •>■!. 

4 The e.xact neighborliood was known as Louisquisset very early. See deed 
from Major William Hopkins to his brother, Thomas, Dec. 27, 161)2, (Providence 
deeds, IV. 11); also the "lay-out" of additional land to Thomas April 10, 
1704. (Providence land records (old books), III. 21-3) ; see also Foster I'apers, 

XIII. 18. 

5 It by no means follows that the " home lot " received in the assignment of 
10.38, was in every instance the " home " of the owner. 

C See Newport Historical Jfagaziiie, III. 259. 



J 



^r 



ANCESTRY AND FAMILY CONNECTIONS. 15 

the colony records, the knowledge wo have of this 
emigrant ancestor would be even more shadowy than 
it is. lie was one of the 39 inhabitants, who sisfned 
the compact^ of July 27, 1()40, memorable as being 
the action with which the town organization virtually 
began. 2 His name occurs in the list of six "com- 
missioners" from the town of Providence to the 
General Assembly, which met at Providence, October 
28, 1052,3 during the period when Portsmouth and 
Newport were carrying on a government apart from 
that of Providence and Warwick.^ lie served also 
as commissioner under the re-established govern- 
ment, in 1()5U^ and IGOO ;^ and was a member of the 
General Assembly under the charter, in 1605^ and 
1GG7.^ In 1G68 his name is signed to that unique 
" letter missive," entitled " The fire-brand discov- 



1 R. I. Col. Record?, I. 31 ; Sfaples's " Annals of Providence," p. 43. 

2 Staples's " Annals " p. •H-45. 

3 R. I. Col. Records, I. 245. 

4 See Arnold's " Rliode Island," I. ch. 8. In the Colony Records, (I. 243- 
40), tliere is printed a letter addressed by the members of this General Assem- 
bly, to Roger Williams, then in England. 

5 R. I. Col. Records, I. 408- 6 Ibid., I. 431. 
7 Ibid., II. 130. 8 Ibid., II. 200. 



16 STErilEN HOPKINS. 

ercd,"^ sent by n coinniiltcc of the town of Provi- 
dciico, to the other towns, in rehition to ^Villi:lm 
Harris. In 1(!()7 and 1(172 he was a mcniher of the 
town conncil.- His nain(!, of eonrse, disa[)[)ears"^ 
fi'oni any Khode Island records after 1()75, and 
nothing more is heard of him until jiis death. Ho 
died at Oyster Bay, N. Y., 1084, (perhaps in 
August).'' 

Major William Hopkins, his eldest son, was now 
prol)al)Iy about thirty-lour'' years of age, and by far 
the best known and most positive charaeter among 
the three children. He had married shortly before 



1 Staplcs's " Aiiii:ils,"p. H:;-!.}. 2 Ibid., p. 051. 

3 A " Tlioiiias Hopkins " was u hhiiiIm r of" tlie (iiiicral Assembly from 
Providoiicf ill 10?,!. (K. I. Col. Uccorils, II. -11',)). Tliis may have bt-eii he, 
but it may also have been his .son, Tliomas, wlio was now of age to serve in 
this ollice. Two additional entiiesof his name will be found in Staples'3 
"Annals," j). 7(i, lOo. 

4 At any rate, !it some time not lon^; previous fo September G, IGSl, when 
he is s])ok(n of as " lately deceased." (Oyster l!ay town records, book I?., p. 
M). Savage's slaleinent, {" Cienealiigical dictionary," II. -tCi-J), is tliat he 
"d[ ii-d) ICi'.il) " lint tills conlounds him \\ itii the " 'rhomas Hopkins of Jlashan- 
taliil," (p(rhai)s within Cranslon or Vtarwick limits), whose will, (dated Oct. 

20, lODtS), was probated Feb. '-'0. 101)8-'.). (I'rovideiiee Wills, I. 2?.)). ' 

5 See llolbrook's remark as to the probable date of birth. (Hopkins gene- 

ftlogy, p. 0). , J 

I'' 



ANCESTRY AI^^D FAMILY CONNECTIONS. 17 

this/ the daughter^ of Captain John Whipple, 3 one 

1 " About ICSO," snys the Hopkins genciilof^y, p. 10. 

2 Tilt' imiiie of tlii.s (ImiglitiT, Abigail, is not includetl in tlie list of baptisms 
of John Whipple's cliiklren at DorchesttT, (Foster Papers, VI. D). The infer- 
ence is, therefore, that she was born after his removal to Providence in 1059. 
(Savage's " Ocncalogical dictionary," IV. 500). The entry of her birth, how- 
ever, is not found on the Providence records. The account of the "Descendants 
of John Wliipple," (y. A'. HM. Gen. Uvg., XXXII. 401), says that she was born 
" 1GC5." Yet she had married Stephen De.\fer, and was the mother of two 
children by him (named in her will of Aug. 10, 1~l'5, (Providence Wills, II. 
237), as John Dexter and Abigail Field), at the time of his death in 10"8, 
(Dorr's "Providence," p. 30). She was thfrefore a widow at the age of 
13 ( !) And she is said to have married .Major Hopkins about lOSO. That one 
of the statements cited above is incorrect seems very evident. Possibly the 
date of her birth should be carried farther back. 

3 John Whipple, like John Smith, "the miller," was from Dorchester, 
Mass., and the "registry of baptismes " of eight of his children, copied from the 
church records of the First Church in Dorchester, in 1708, and "attested" in 
the handwriting of the then minister of Dorchester, Uev. John Danforth, is 
preserved in the Foster Papers, VI. 0. He was for a time in the employ of 
Israel Stoughton, the father of the future Governor Stoughton, of Massachu- 
setts; and Savage, ("Genealogical dictionary," IV. 505\ intimates that he may 
have come from England in the same year with him, 1632. Dorcliester, at this 
early day extended nearly to the Rhode Island line, (Clnpp's "History of the 
town of Dorchester," p. 20), and it is by no means certain in what portion ot 
this territory he lived. His name occurs once on the Dorchester town 
records, in connection with a grant of land, of trifling e.xtent, "about the 
mill," Jan- -> l''-^''- (Fourth report of Boston Record Commissioners, ISSO, 
p. 27). The home of John Smith, however, (whose son John married his 
daughter Sarah), was at Ponkapog, near the southern base of the Blue 
Hills. (Manuscript notes of Job Smith). John Whipple received an allotment 
of land at Louisquisset, June 27, 1659. (Foster Papers, XIII. 18). Ilis inn 



18 . STEPHEN HOPKINS. 

of the prominent figures in all phases of Providence 
life, from IGliO^ to lG85,as inn-holder, surveyor, car- 
pentcr,2 member of the town council,"' and member 
of the General Assembly. 4 He was also the princi- 
pal trader, and a principal legal practitioner in the 
town, while he lived. ^ Traits of this enei'getic 
seventeenth-century public character will be found to 



stood on the Town Street, nt the foot of the present Constitution Hill, (the 
site of 3C9 North Main Street). "From the staid and sober character of 
the old Wiiipple inn," says Mr. Dorr, "as well as from its central position, it 
became the favorite place of meeting of the town council and court of probate." 
(There was no Colony house in Providence until 1731). Dorr's " I'rovideuce," 
p. 184, 155. 

1 He removed to Providence about 1059. His will is dated May IC, 1CS5. 
(Foster Papers, VI. 3). 

2 He had been a carpenter in Dorchester. (iV. E. Hist. Gen. Reg. XXXII. 
403). See also Dorr's " Providence," p. fiS. 

3 In 1GG9. Staples's "Annals," p. 054. 

4 In lOGG, 1GG9, and 1G75-6. R. I. Col. Records, II. 150, 241, 532. 

6 In the si.\teen bound volumes of manuscripts known as the Foster Papers, 
(in the possession of the Rhode Island Historical Society), are preserved a 
large number of John Whipple's papers, public and private, together with 
some of John Whipple Jr's. Tiiey were inherited by Governor Hopkins, and 
were by him placed in the hands of Senator Foster between 1/70 and irS5. 
Tliey comprise deeds, deposition-:, writs, warrants, returns of surveys, several 
instances of '-power of attorney," and letters. 

There is also one curious seventeenth century bill of lading, dated July 3, 
16i^, (Foster Papers, XIII. 22). 



(i 



ANCESTRY AND FAMILY CONNECTIONS. 19 

characterize his son-in-hiw, Major Hopkins, to some 
extent; but they certainly reappear with marked 
force, in tlie Major's grandson, Governor Hopkins. i 
Major William Hopkins was admitted a freeman of 
the colony. April 30, 1672.^ The business to which 
he was brought up was undoubtedly farming, but he 
is early known also as a surveyor ; and, says Hol- 
brook, "numerous accounts of his labors in this pro- 
fession abound in the records."^ The advent of King 
Philip's war, in 1675, would seem to have scattered 
the Hopkins family very completely. William's 
father, with his sister-in-law'' and her children, ap- 
pear to have gone, at this time,^ to Long Island. 
His brother Thomas remained on the Louisquisset 
estate.^ He himself, being a military man,^ not only 



I See page 33. 2 R. I. Col. Records, II. 450. 

3 Hopkins genealogy, p. 10. 

4 Her name was Elizabeth. See Appendix E. The name of this third 
brother whom she married, remains unknown. See p. 14. 

5 See Xeicport Historical Magazine, III. 259. 

6 See Hopkins genealogy, p. 15-16. See also deed of Dec. 27, 1692, (Provi. 
dence Deeds, IV. 11), which mentions it as the "lot on which he now dwelleth." 

7 He was a "captain " as early as 16S8, (R. I. Col. Records, III. 243) ; and 
" major " in 1698. 



20 STEPHEN HOPKINS. 

renriiiied in the town, (being one of the twenty- 
seven "th:it stayed and went not away" in King 
Philip's war, as recorded in the town meeting rec- 
ords )i but performed military service. A less 
creditable record is associated with his name in 
August, 1G70, when he was one of those appointed 
by the town, to sell the Indians taken captive iu 
the war.- In the neighborhood of 1G80, as has al- 
ready been stated, ^ occurred his marriage with the 
young widow, Mrs. Dexter; and from this time he 
is frequently found in association with his father in- 
law.'* Mrs. Dexter had by her first husband^ two 

1 Printed in Staples's " Annals," p. lO-l-fio. There is a copy in tlie Foster 
Papers, I. 3. Among other names in tliis list are Ivoger Williams; Dmiiel 
Abbott ; Valentine Whitman ; James Angell ; Hopkins's cousin, Abraham JIan ; 
and Captain .John Whipple. 

2 staples's " Annals," p. 1/0. See Fost-^r Papers, T. 0. See also Arnold's 
reference to this transaction as " in fact a true apprenticeship system." (Ar. 
noUl's " Uliode Island." I. 419). 

3 See pages 10-17. 

4 Captain John Whipple. He probably lived in "The Neck" for some 
years after the war. (" I'lie Xeck " was frequently used as a designation before 
the diviMon of the town in ir'.O-l to distinguisli the settled part). 

5 Her hnsbaml, Stephen De.xter, was tlie son of Rev. Gregory Dexter, at 
first a printer in L )ndoii. Hi* imprint is on the title page of Roger Williams's 
volume, " .V key into the language of America," (1043). Gregory De.vter came 
to Providence about 1044. Here he was " for several years town clerk," (Nar- 



AKCESTKY AND FAMILY CONNECTIONS. 21 

children, John and Abigail Dexter.^ The date of 
birth of William H()[)kins, Jr., the only son of the 
ISIajor and his wife, is not on record. 2 Their grand- 
son Stephen's birth, however, occurring only twenty- 
seven years later, ^ renders it probable that their son 
was born soon after ]68(). In 1(J84 the death of 
Major Hopkins's father occurred, on Long Island.'' 
As surveyor^ of lands, Major Hopkins was conver- 
sant with the good qualities of much of the land in 
the "Plantations ; " and he appears to have found so 
early as 1689*^ a piece of property"^ which pleased him 

ragansett Club Pub., I. 71) ; was president, (of Providence and Warwick), in 
1053-54; was named in the charter of 1063; and about 1050 acted as pastor of 
the cliurch (now the First Baptist churcli), in Providence. His great grand- 
daughter became the wife of Governor Hopkins's eldest son, Rufus, in 1747. 
Wlietlier Stephen Hopkins owed his Christian name to this Stephen De.\ter, 
whose widow became his grandmotlior, docs not appear. He had a somewhat 
remote kinsman, Stephen Arnold, from wliom it may have come. 

1 Tliese children are named in her will. (Printed in Hopkins genealogy, p. 

69-71. 

2 Tlie provoking incompleteness of the early records will have already been 
noticed. It is due partly to original neglect, but partly to the loss and 
injury of certain volumes. 

3 March 7, 170C-7. 4 See page 10. 5 Hopkins genealogy, p. 10. 

6 Feb. 20, lGSS-0, is the date of the deed by which he acquired ownership of 
a portion of this property. (Providence Deeds. I, ISO). But it is apparent that 
this was not his original purchase in this locality. 

7 It is not improbable that this property, which only a few years before had 



22 STErilEN HOPKINS. 

SO well that ho made it his home for the rest of his 
life, 1 (1_\ iiiir there in 17:^3. Here, in i7()7, his sou 
and his wile ap[)ear to have been living also; for it 



been in tlie possession of Robert Coles, (sec Appendix D) one of tlie fnur 
rawtuxet owners, luul ci>nie into M.ijor Hopkins's luinds tlirongh the interested 
snggestions or cflbrts of his kinsman, William Arnold, liiinself also one 
of tlie fonr Pawtuxet owners. His lather, Thomas Hopkins, had apparently 
been on the most intimate terms «itli liis cousins, the Arnolds; and mention 
Is made on tlie Providence town records, (April 10, 1704), of their joint 
ownership in certain hind near Lonisquisset. (" A half ri;<lit of Tliomua 
Hopkins, stnr., now deceased, and a half right of William Arnolil, deceased"). 
Thomas Hopkins, it may be added, was a member of the town committee 
ajipointed April, 1001, " to meet time of I'awtnxet men and run the line" "up 
into the country, beguining at the tree at .^lasliapaiig." (Staples's '■ Annals," 
p. 5~'.J-i>0). This committee ran the line only as far as the " Pawchasit river," 
and reported to tlie town in .lamuiry, lOliS. (Staples's " Annals," p. 5S0). The 
same coniniittee reported ill 108:!. (Staiiles's "Annals," p. 58'.)). IJeiiig thus 
connected, by interest at least, with the fertile Tawtuxct lands, it is not strange 
that M;ijor Hopkins should have made his permanent home in this desirable 
location, not far removiil from them, fertain land had been earlier "laved 
out "to Kobert Coles, " by the thirteen proprietors of I'awtuxet for his Paw- 
tuxet share of meuddow in those fresh meaddows where it lieth ;" and had 
b<-en by him sold to Valentine Wliilman, (wliose name stands next to that of 
Pioger Williams in the Indian deeds of Dec. J?, KilU, Feb. 1, Km,', ami .hiiie 'J4, 
li;:)i; Stiiples's " Annals," p. b7i-7o) ; and this land was by him transferred to 
M;ijor Hopkins in the deed of Keb. L'O, lOSS-;), already alluded to, (Providence 
Deeds, I. hsCi), tlius adding to the estate already in his jiossession. 

1 In his will, July 1, 17;;:i, he calls it his "homestead;" ("all that my 
homestead, meadows, and tenenieuts where I now dwell"). (Printed iu Hop- 
klus geuealogy, p. 65). 



ANCESTRY AND FAMILY CONNECTIONS. 23 

was on it that tlicir son, the fnttirc Governor Hop- 
kins, was horn,- in that year. This hind, referred 
to hy ALajor II()[)kiiis in his will- as " near to a place 
called Massapange,"^ and hy Governor Hopkins 
thirty-one years later,'' as "in Cranston,''^ i.-, as has 
already heen shown, *> in that i)ai"t of the [)resent city 
of Providence known as Sontli Providence, near 
Broad, ki'ackett, and Hamilton Streets. His father 
had died intestate' in lGi54, and hy the law of prinio- 
genitnre^ the whole i)r()perty had now conic into 
his own hands. Bnt, in order to rcmeily this 
inecpiality of legal provision, he cxecnted in 1()!J2 a 
"gill deed ''^ to his brother, transferring t(j him the 
homestead of their father at Lonisqnisset,"' on which, 

1 Slarjh 7, 1703-7. For the evidence as to the identity of this place, see 
Appendix D. 

2 July 1, 17.23. 3 Hopkins pjenealogy, p. 05. 4 Feb. 3, 1751. 
5 See Ajipendix C. See p. 9. 

7 Oyster Bay (N. Y.) town records, Book B, p. 11. 

8 Not npialed until June, 1718. (I'ublic laws of Ilhode Island, 1719, p. 
95-98;. 

9 December 27, UV.YZ. (IMovidenc Deeds, IV. 11). 

10 There is {jreat lack of uiiitbnnity in the spelliiix of this Indian name. 
Tile above is the form in whicli it is usually found on modern maps. Its 
present form, says Dr. J. Hammond Trumbull, '• is corrupt beyond conjecture 
of its original Indian sounds." Au examination of land records shows this 



2-1 STEPHEN HOPKINS. 

in fact, Thomas now lived. ^ His first service under 
govei'nment was during Andres's occupation of New 
Enixland, wlicn he attended as a memher of the 
"grand jury," at the "quarter sessions" ofSeptemher, 
1088.^ During Governor Cranston's long adminis- 
tration, however, his attendance in the General As- 
sembly was frequent ; and ten tcrms^ of service as 
assistant are recorded, in the eight years, 1700-1707. 
His duties as surveyor made him a pre-eminently 
useful citizen in those early days. Besides repeatedly 
exercising this accomplishment, in the laying out 
of the up-country4 lands, he was appointed on a com- 
mittee^ in 1705 and 1709, to rectify the northern and 
eastern boundaries of the colony ; and in 1708 to cor- 

locality to be fartlur north in Uie present town of Lincoln tliau tlie school dis- 
trict wliich goes by tins name. 

1 The deed mentions it as the " lot on which he now dwelleth." 

2 During the suspension of the chartei", no meetings of tlie (ieneral Assem- 
bly were lield. Tlie record of these quarter sessions will be found in R. I. Col. 
Kecords, HI. 243. 

3 irOO, iroi, 1702, 1703, 1701, 1705 (May, June, and October,) 1703, 1707. R. 
I. Col. Records, III. 408, 429, 443, 472, 511, 523, 531, 54<J, 553; IV. 3. 

4 From the time that the seven-mile line was established, in IGOO, (Staples's 
"Annals," p. 592j, the land west of it came more and more into the bauds of 
settlers. 

6 E. I. Col. Bacords, III.520; IV. 83. 



ANCESTRY AND FAMILY CONNECTIONS. 25 

rect the northern line^ of the King's Province. "-^ Only 
one child is mentioned in his will, 3 (dated July 1, 
1723), namely, William Hopkins. The "Massapauge" 
homestead he bequeathed to his grandson, Colonel 
William Hopkins, ^ his son having for ten years or 
more been settled on a home of his own, west of the 
seven-mile line,^ which his father's will now con- 
firmed to him. 6 Major Hopkins died July 8, 
1723." 

Amons: the families which had settled along the 
Moshassuck river, but outside the original home-lot 
tract, were those of Christopher Smith and Lawrences 
Wilkinson. The latter had removed to Providence, 

1 R. I. Col. Records, IV. 42. It is now the northern line of Nortli Kings- 
town and Exeter. 

•Z In 1717-18, also, a survey was ordered of the land on the west side of the 
Town street from tlie Mill, over the summit of Stampers Hill, to the farther 
end of the hill. In this " last division of house lots," as he terms it in his will, 
he received land in his father's name opposite the present Church of the Re- 
deemer. (I'lat of Providence proprietor.s, 1718). 

3 Providence Wills, II. 139. i Hopkins genealogy, p. 65. 

5 The present eastern line of Barrillville, Glocester and Scituate. 
(Stuples's " Annals," p. 503). 

6 Hopkins genealogy, p. 67. 7 Ibid., p. 10. 
8 Frequently spelt " Lawrance." 



2fi STEPHEN TIOPKINS. 

from Ijanchcster,' in Durham, England, perhaps as 
early as 1657 ;•- the former as early as 1655.^ Chris- 
tojjhor Smith was perhaps a companion of Wilkinson, 
the latter havins; married his dans^hter Susannah^ be- 
fore 1(352,'^ and therefore before they are known to 
have reached Providence.'' His land, like that of the 
family of John Smith, "the miller,*' was in the vicinity 
of the present Smith's Hill ;'^ and this circumstance 
has caused the naming of that locality to be claimed^ 
for him, as well as for the miller's family.^ Possibly 

1 Wilkinson Memoirs, p. 33-35. 

2 Providence Deeds, etc., transcribed, p. 110. He may liave been here 
earlier. He received a lot, in the quarter-right distribution, to which the date 
"the loth of 11 mo. 1645, is affixed." (See Wilkinson Memoirs, p. 35-30; 
Staples's "Annals," p. CiO). 

3 Admitted freeman, KvV). (11. I. Col. Records, T. 290). His previous hi.story 
is unknown. 

4 Wilkinson, (Wilkinson Memoirs, p. 45), maintains that the correct spell- 
ing of her mother's name is "Alee," and not ".Mice," as Savage has it. 

5 Wilkinson Memoirs, p. 47-4!<. 

<> See, however, the Wilkinson Memoirs, p. 4s. 

7 Providence Deeds, I. 113, 39. 

IS Wilkinson Memoirs, p. 45; wliich refers to Providence land records, etc., 
(old books), I. 30. 

Wilkinson is, however, wrong in making the expression "brow of the 
hill " refer to Smith's Hill itself. It refers rather to a small but then precipi- 
tous eminence, soiitheast of the present bridge over the Moshassuck at Nash 
Lane. 



ANCESTKY AND FAMILY CONNECTIONS. 27 

there are even others of this certainly not uncommon 
name who have an equal claim.' 

Lawrence Wilkinson's first residence appears to 
have been southeast of the present North Burying 
Ground." In lt)fi(j, however, possibly about the 
time at which Thomas Hopkins^ settled in the 
same locality, he received a grant of land^ in the 
vicinit}' of Louisquisset, and this remained his 
home for the rest of his life. He acquired much 
additional land, however, amounting before his 
death, to "about 1,000 acres. "^ He was a member 
of the General Assembly in 1673.^ He died August 
9, 1692, '^ leaving three sons and three daughters.^ 

The eldest son of Lawrence Wilkinson was Sam- 
uel, born not far from 1650.-' In 1G72'" he married 
Plain Wickendeu, one of the Rev. \Mlliam Wicken- 
den's three daughters. Mr. Wickenden's " home lot," 



1 No relationship has been establislied between the two Smith fKmilies 
above named. 

2 Williiusou Memoirs, p. 37, 43. 3 See page H. 
4 AVilkinson Memoirs, p. 38. o Ibid., p. 42. 

6 R. I. Col. Records, II. 482, 7 Wilkinson Memoirs, p. 43. 

6 Ibid., p. 47. 9 Ibid., p. 47. 

10 Ibid., p. 326. 



28 STEPHEN HOPKINS. 

named thirteenth in order in the "revised list" of 
the early settlers, was in the southern part of the 
town, (the present corner of South Main and Power 
Streets marking its southwestern limits).' Mr. 
Wickenden's connection with the colo-nial govern- 
ment was Ions: and intimate. He is said to have 
come from Salem in 1639.^ He signed the agree- 
ment of 1636^ and the compact of 1G37 ;^ he served 
on the committee which organized the government 
under the patent in 1648 \'^ and served as commis- 
sioner for Providence in 1651, 1652, 1653, 1654, 
and 1655,*^ and as deputy in 1664.^ He was one of 
the ministers of the church in Providence, during 
some part of this time.^ He died February 3, 
1669-70.'J 



1 Staples's " Annals," p. :!5. 

2 Tliis is the statement of the Wilkinson Memoirs, p. 325. Savage says, 
more cautiously, " perhaps of Salem, 1639." (" Genealogical dictionary," IV. 
5.37). 

3 R. I. Col. Records, I. 14. 4 Ibid., I. 31. 

5 Ibid., I. 209. 

6 Ibid., I. 2.35, 230, 241, 250, 258, 267, 271, 277, 281, 304. 

7 Ibid, II. 3S. 

8 " History of the First Baptist church in Providence, 16.39-1877," p. 7. 

9 Savage's " Genealogical dictionary," IV. 537-38. 



ANCKSTKY AM) FAMILY CONNKCTIOXS. 29 

♦ 

One of the finst' of Stephen Hopkins's ancestors to 
embraee the doctrines of Friends appears to have been 
the public spirited fanner of Louis(piisset, Samuel 
AVilkinson. lie was growing u[) to manhood when 
the \ouiX continued discussion- of their views took 
place, and the home of Richard Scott-' and his family, 
amone: the most active of the promoters of these 
doctrines, was not far from his own neighborhood.'^ 
Through his daughter, the governor's mother, the 
principles of this body of believers were handed 
down to Stephen Hopkins himself.'' Though not 
residing in "The Neck," he engaged very largely in 
l)ublic life. He was a justice of the peace, and many 
of the marriages of that day were performed hy him.*^ 



1 Saimiel Wilkinson's grandfatlii-r, Cliristoplier Smith, is said to have been 
a Friend. 

2 See Arnold's " Rhode Island," I. i.'C>i)-70, 369-62. 

H See Fox's " New-Enpland-firc-brand quenched," Appendix. 

4 At what is now Lonsdale. (Wilkinson Jlenioirs, p. 3Jo). 

6 A great-granddaughter of this same Richard Scott, whom Stephen Hop- 
kins must doubtless have seen occasionally at the Friends' Meeting in this 
neighborhood, (Staples's " Annals," p. 431), became his wife, (by his first mar- 
riage), in 1726. 

6 "In his younger day-i " he "was constable." Wilkinson Memoirs, p. 
49. 



30 STEPHEN HOPKINS . 

"On one page' of the public records," says the family 
annalist, "are recorded thirty-one c()ui)le who were 
married by ' Captain- Samuel Wilkinson justice.'":' 
He was a member of the General Assembly in 1707 
and 171(>.^ Like Major W^illiain Hopkins, with 
whom he was certainly bi'onght into close associa- 
tion,'' he was a surveyor.*^ This fact was doubtless 
the occasion of his appointment in 171U on one of 
the boundary commissions, to determine the north 
line of the colony/ He lived to see a numerous 
family of children and grandchildren, growing up 
around him. Among the latter was Stei)hen Hop- 
kins, who enjoyed to a marked extent the opportu- 
nity of his companionship and influence,^ and who 

1 Providence IJecoid of births, marriages, etc., I. 77. 

2 The title of "Captain" appears to have dated from King Pliilip's war. 
(Wilkinson Memoirs, p. .'i.Sl). ."H Wilkinson alemoirs, p. 50. 

4 K. I. Col. Records, IV. .3, 28, 211. 

5 They were neighbors. He vi'as appraiser of Major Hopkins's brother's 
estate, (his near neighbor), at his deatli in 171S. Wilkinson Memoirs, p. 50. 

f) " His name," says W^ilkiuson, " appears more frequently tluvn any otiier 
man's as surveyor, administrator, appraiser of estates, overseer of the last will 
and testament." (Wilkinson Memoirs, p. 49). 

7 R. I. Col. Records, IV. 252. 

8 "Surveying," says Wilkinson, "he undoubtedly acquired of his grand- 
father." (Wilkinson Memoirs, p. .361). 



ANCESTRY AND FAMILY CONNECTIONS. 31 

was twenty years of age at his death. He died August 
27, 1727,' leaving six ehildren,"- having survived 
liis friend Major Hopkins four years.-' 

The marriage of his daughter Ruth with William 
Ho})kins, Jr., occurred soon after 1700.^ The first 
years of their married life were passed, as has al- 
ready been indicated,'' at the Massapauge" homestead. 
But these were the times when great interest 
attached to certain lands west of the seven-mile line. 
The father of both were surveyors, and naturally 
familiar with the ground. Moreover, Kuth's young- 
est brother, Joseph Wilkinson, had received in 1700 
a grant of 1371 acres of land,^ near Chapumiscook.*' 

1 There is u discrcpuncy in Wilkinson's stiitements as to this date, (17-'i), 
at page 337; and 1727, at page 51). The latter appears to be the correct date. 

2 Kuth, the mother of Governor Hopkins, was the yonngest hut one, and 
was born .Jan. 31, 10S5-<>. (Wilkinson Jlenioirs, p. CA). 

3 Major Hopkins died .Inly S, 1723. 

4 The records in connection witli William Hopkins's family arc surprisingly 
meagre. 

.5 See pages 22-23. The modern spelling is Mashapang. 

7 Wilkinson Memoirs, p. 7(5-77. 

8 This is the common spelling in the records of the last century. It is 
abbreviated on modern maps, to '"Chopmist." Parsons's "Indian names of 
places in Rhode Island," p. 12. It lies near the present northwest corner of 
Scituate. 



32 STEPHEN HOPKINS. 

It Wiis not longi before he went with his wife to this 
farm in the forest, and settled there. Within a few 
years- William Hopkins followed, with his wife and 
two children,^ and became a resident of Chapum- 
iscook. His farm was not far from his brother- 
in-law's estate, and was "on high land, overlooking 
a wide extent of country."'^ 

Here, remote from the settlement at "The Neck," 
in the heart of an almost unbroken forest, ^ in a 
house doubtless of uncomfortably small dimensions,^ 
he brought his farm to a high state of cultivation.'^ 
He at the same time brought up a family of children^ 
of whom any parents might well bo proud ;^ one of 

1 " About the year 1703.'' Beaman's "Historical address at Scituate," p. 14. 

2 Soon after 170r, probably. See the Hopkins genealogy, p. 12, (list ot 
births). 

3 William and Stephen. 4 Beaman's "Scituate," p. 18. 

6 Wilkinson Memoirs, p. :i59. Beaman's " Scituate," p. 16. 

7 " It," says Wilkinson, " when in possession of the Hopkins's, was exceed- 
ingly fertile, producing excellent crops of corn, rye, oats, and potatoes." 
(Wilkinson Jlemoirs, p. 350). 

8 Their names will be found in Appendix C. There were six sons and 
three daughters; two of the latter of whom married into the Harris and 
Angell families. (Hopkins genealogy, p. 12, 20, 27). 

9 William, the eldest son, the namesake and legatee of his grandfather, the 
Major, was among the earliest of Rhode Island sailors to extend the commerce 
of Providence. A curious mass of traditionary anecdote appears to have 



ANCESTRY AND FAMILY CONNECTIONS. 33 

whom was destined to reflect honor on his stute and 
nation. 

In Stephen Hopkins may be discovered, no tlonbt, 
something of the energetic, spirited nature of his 
paternal grandfather. Major William Hopkins, ^ and 
of the shrewd sagacity of Captain John Whipple.^ 
But it is to his mother's side of the house, after 

accumulated about his name; (see, for instance, the Wilkinson Memoirs, p. 
350-51, 353) ; but there is enough that is authentically recorded to show his 
activity and enterprise. (For his connection with the war with Spain of 17-44- 
48, see the "Public letters," 1731-il,p. 67; and 1742-45, p. 21, etc. on file, in manu- 
script, in the office of the secretary of state, at rrovidence). A granddaughter 
and a great-granddaughter married sons of (Jovernor Nicholas Cooke. Another 
son, Stephen, became the most eminent Rhode Islander of his time, in civil life. 
Another son, Esek, became, in 1775, commander of the first fleet of the United 
Colonies, and later commodore. A granddaugliter became the wife of Abra- 
ham Whipple, another early commodore of the United States navy. Another 
granddaugliter became the wife of President Maxcy, of Brown University. 
A great-grandson, the late Hon. John Hopkins Clarke, represented Rhode 
Island in the United States Senate, 1847-53, being the last Whig member 
returned to the Senate from this state. Whether the tlnee brothers vvlio died 
young would have eclipsed the careers of William, Esek, and Stephen, can 
never be known. But, says Beanum, the record of these descendants should 
cause their parents to " be gratefully and honorably rememberd." " What a 
family were William and Ruth Hopkins rearing," he adds, "in tlieir small 
and rough-boarded farmer's house, among the wooded hills, in the first ([uarter 
of the eighteenth cen(ui-y !" (" Historical collections of tlio Ksscx Institute," 
II. 123). 
1 See pages 16-25. 2 See pages 17-19. 



34 STEPHEN HOPKINS. 

all, th;it he may be said to owe most. In him there 
"Were to be seen, throughout life, something of the 
gravity! which may have come to him from his an- 
cestor, Kev. William Wickendcn ; but especially the 
intelligent, earnest interest in, and capacity for effi- 
cient public service, which characterized his Quaker 
grandfather. Captain Samuel Wilkinson.- He is 
one of the first instances of a type which has since 
furnished numerous examples of good citizenship, — 
a public spirited Quaker.^ 

1 See Wilkinson Memoirs, p. S'JG, p. 82. Mr. Wliittier Iiimself states, how- 
ever, in a letter to the author, that the Hopkins of the poem quoted by AVilkin- 
son, is not Governor Stephen Hopkins of Providence, but Rev. Samuel Hop- 
kins of Kewport. 

2 See pages ::i9-31. 

3 No record exists, hovvfever, showing any connection of Stephen Hopkins 
with the Society of Friends, as a member, until the year 1755. 



CHAPTER III. 



EARLY INFLUENCES. 



The rirst twenty^ years of Stephen Hopkins's life, 
in which, if at all, he was acted on by the formative 
influences in his sniTounclings, lay entirely within 
the long term of service of Governor Samuel Crans- 
ton. 2 As has been briefly indicated already ,3 the 
life of that period was in its most rudimentary 
stages. Nor was there, to quote the language of 
General Greene's biograi)her, even so late as 1742, 
any " very material difference between town and 
country ;"** much less in 1707. The Providence set- 
tlement^ was a collection of straggling dwellings on 
the east side of the river ; access to the outside world 

1 1707-27. 2 1608-1727. 3 See p. 1-2. 

•1 " Life of Natlianael Greene," by G. W. Greene, L 6. 

5 A census taken in 1708 showed tlie population of tlie undivided town [j. e. 
county] of Providence to be only l,44f>. (R. I. Col. Records, IV. 59). 



36 STEPHEN HOPKINS. 

being by a ferry at Weybossoti and another at "Nar- 
row Passage,"- and the '' Old North road,"^ leading 
from the npper end of the Town Street. If these 
"roads," moreover, which were understood to lead 
somewhere, were little more than the " widening of 
the old bridle-path through the woods, "^ fenced across 
at intervals with gates, ^ it could hardly be expected 
that the forest pathwa3's, stretching out to the va- 
rious settlements west of the " seven-mile line," 
which were no thoroughfare to any point beyond,'' 
would be any better. Efforts were made in 1706 
and 1710 to authorize the laying out of some road, 
communicating with Plaintield and Woodstock in the 
Connecticut Colony.' Yet these needed highways 
waited sixty years for completion. » 

In reaching Ste[>hen Hopkins's early home, at 

1 The^bridgc was not completed until 171-;. (Dorr's " Providence," p. 107). 

2 The present site of " Red Bridge." See Dorr's " Providence," p. 78. 

3 Dorr's " Providence," p. 74-75. 4 Ibid., p. 79. 

5 Little regard, as Mr. Dorr shows, " was paid to the convenience of travel- 
lers toward Massachusetts." In 17:i0, the town meeting voted that the high- 
way " to Pawtucket, be fenced for five years." (Town meeting records, 1720). 

t) Up to 1700 no attempt was made to render them a "thoroughfare," even 
to these Rhode Island settlements. 

7 Dorr's " Providence," p. 125. 8 Ibid., p. 127-28. 



EARLY INFLUENCKS. o7 

Clia[)Uiniscouk,i (now Scituate), tnivelliiig was doiio 
chiefly on horseback. There was no regiihu* convey- 
ance for passengers. If* an}^ man wonld travel, he 
used his own horse. jMerchandise was taken home 
at the charge of the purchaser in ox-teams. Nor 
was any " country store " opened at the Scituate 
scttk'ment until a later period. 2 There was no regular 
postal route into this region ; for there were no daily 
or weekly newspapers published in Rhode Island, to 
be se;it there ;•* and there were few letters written 
and was little occasion for any. Not until several 
years later does any building for religious purposes 
appear to have been erected in this Scitiuite neigh- 
borhood. ■! Not until well into the present century 
did it give any support to public schools.'' The 
town itself received its separate incorporation 
and name in ITol, when Providence County was 

1 Though born at th<! Mashapuug Iioinestead, as has been shown, (see 
p. 9-10), liis early life was spent at the Chapuiniscook fann, to which his 
parents doubtless renK)ved before he was two years of age. 

2 In early times the tavern served an almost universal purpose. (See Uea- 
man's " Scituate," p. 33). 

3 The first newspaper was the Rhode Island Gazette, Newport, 17.32. 

4 Beaman's "Scituate," p. 47. 6 18.34. Ibid., p. 49. 
4 



38 



STEPHEN HOPKINS. 



divided into four townships' by two lines intersect- 
ino- almost at ria^ht ans^les near Moswansicut 
Pond. Some emigrants from the Plymouth Colonya 
had settled here in 1710, and it was from their home in 
that colony that the new town received the name of 
Scituate. It doubtless remained, down to the time 
Avhen Stephen Hopkins left it in 1742, as much a 
" frontier settlement " as are the border t(jwns of 
Dakota and Montana to-day. 

What is known of the people of this period? They 
were the third generation from their English ances- 
tors, and in no one of the New England colonies had 
the modifications introduced in the successive 
decades since 1040 I)een less favorable to steady, sym- 
metrical advancement than in Rhode Island. 3 To 
appreciate their situation, we need only attempt to 
realize what a community of to-day, planted in the 
wilds of New Mexico or Arizona, would become, 
without the active agency of civilizing institutions. 



1 1!. I. Col. Ki'conls, IV. 44-,'-45. 2 Beamiin's " Scituate," p. 10. 

3 " The persecutions," says Colonel Higginson, "and the delusions, belong 
generally to this later epoch." (Article on " The second generation of English- 
men in America," Harper's Magazine, July, 1883, LXVII. 215). 



EAKLY INFLUENCES. ;^9 

The settlers of New EngUind had left their homes in 
old England, siirronnded with the civilization which 
had been maturing for centuries, and had taken the 
responsibility of rearing their children in a wilder- 
ness ; and as Cotton Mather in an eighteenth-century 
ode expressed it, it was due only to the intluence 
of the schools, that any civilizing elements were 
present : — 

" That thou, Nevv-Eughiud, art uot Scythia grown."' 

They entered thus in some cases upon measures 
designed to counteract the deteriorating tendency, 
and yet it was hardly to be expected that the second 
and third generations would compare favorably with 
the first. The Adam VVinthrop and Wait Still Win- 
throp, of the eighteenth century,"^ would sufl'er by 
comparison with their distinguished ancestor, John 
Winthrop ; Cotton Mather furnishes a type by many 
degrees inferior to his grandfather, John Cotton ; 
Rev. Mr. Parris, of Salem Village, in 1692, is 

1 Cotton Mather's " Corderius Americanus," p. 2S. Printed also in X. E. 
Hist. Gen. Reg. XXXIII. 188. 

2 Collections of the Massachusetts Historical Society, oth series, VIII. 
219. Yet see Mr. Robert C. Winthrop's timely remarks in the preface to the 
same volume, (p. XVII.), as to a needful discrimination to be made. 



40 



STEPHEN HOPKINS. 



almost repulsive by the side of Higginson or Hooker. 
In Rhode Island, the aged Providence Williams, 
with whom Dr. Stiles talked^ in the last century, 
was I)ut a sorry representative of" his grandfather, 
the richly endowed founder of the colony ; nor were 
those who, in 1700, were bearing the names of Ar- 
nold, of Greene, of Clark, of Olney, or of Angell, 
in any danger of eclipsing the record of their emi- 
grant ancestors. 

It should never be forgotten, moreover, that the 
conditions of life in Rhode Island W'cre strikingly 
peculiar, and indeed unic|ue. Working out what to us 
is an invaluable experiment of i-igid separation of the 
civil and religious functions in administration, to their 
logical extremes, the colony suffered from the 
inherent difficulties of the problem.- In the other 



1 President Stiles's " Itinerary," [manuscript], year irt'3. 

2 " It is impossible," says Professor Diman, " to read tlie history of Rliode 
Island, and not to recognize the fact tliat tliose who drank of tliis great cup of 
liberty were compelled to pay a heavy price." " The complete separation 
(illected between cliurch and state, by remittinK the support of religious insti- 
tutions to a community divided, beyond all previous example, in religious 
sentiment, deprived them of the inestimable benetit of an educated clergy." 
Oration at " 200th anniversary of Bristol," p. 47. 



EAHLY INFLUENCES. 4] 

colonies the people in the various towns could appro- 
priate money for churches and schools ; and, in fact, 
I)}' the year 1(549, ever^' other New Enghuid colony 
had made public education compulsory. i In Rhode 
Island the exaggerated form in which the doctrine of 
separation had come to be held gave the public a 
succession of religious ministers " without special 
training,"- and successive generations of children 
Avith no opportunities for education. Indeed, the 
case of a child brought up in this colony at that time 
would seem to have been well nigh hopeless so far as 
education was concerned. His parents had not the 
ability togive him an education ; few indeed had means 
sufficient for that. And the colony and the town 
had no willingness to do it.=* His own persistent, 

1 Tylor's " History of American literatiiri'," I. ',»'.». 

2 The iiiiuistors, says John Howlund, " were generally larniers, and harl no 
salary or any other means of support but (heir own labor." (Stone's " John 
Howland,"p. 30). 

3 The exceedingly infrequent instances which do exist in which some 
attempt seems to have been made at public provision for education become all 
the more striking by contrast. See, for instance, the vote of the town of New- 
port, Aug. 0, 1040, the vote of the proprietors of Trovideuce, May 1), 1603; the 
petition of John Whipple, Jr., to the town of Providence, Jan. 1!S, 1084; the 
petition of John Dexter, Major William Hopkins, and others, to the town of 



42 



STEPHEN HOPKINS. 



personal eflbrts might, if urged on by an uncon- 
querable desire, secure for him this advantage. But 
naturally, this "unconquerable desire" became, 
under these circumstances, a very rare phenomenon. 
Yet while the general condition of society in 
which, as already indicated, Stephen Hopkins was 
now growing up, was far from favorable, we need 
to look more closely at those particular conditions 
by which he was affected. His father was plainly a 
man of by no means the commanding qualities, or 
familiarity with public affairs,^ which ha<l character- 
ized his grandfather and earlier ancestors. But from 
his mother he not only inherited strongly marked 
traits but also received opportunities for mental 
training and development which were really note- 
worthy in the colonial society of that time. Though 
thei'e were no pu1)lic schools to which he could be 



Providence, Jan., 109(5. (Staples'3 " Annals of Providence," p. 402, 49'i, 4',H; 
Barnard's " Eeport on public schools," 1848, p. 33-.34, 145-46). 'I'lioy resulted 
in very little in either instance. 

1 Only one instance appears in which there is a probability of his having 
held public office. The " Mr. William Hopkins " vcho served as a deputy from 
Providence in the General Assembly, May, 1710, (11. I. Col. Records, IV. 87), 
may perhaps have been he, but even this is not certain. 



EARLY INrLUENCEP. 



43 



sent, his inolher's cureful instruction appears from 
the slender accounts which have come clown to us to 
have boon thorough and com]:)rehensive.' Her 
grandfather, Rev. William Wickendon, is said to 
have been not only a man of strong character, hut a 
possessor of books- which may have descended to 
his trnviitldauirhler and her household. Within a 
few miles' distance-^ was his uncle, Joseph Wilkinson, 
one of the earliest settlers west of the seven-mile 
line, "a surveyor, and much employed in this work 
in the town."'' That the young man received 
repeated lessons from him as well as from his grand- 
father in that practically useful accomplishment has 
been suggested,^ and is not improbable. About ten 
miles to the north-east, near the Wilkinson homestead^ 
by the banks of the Blackstone,^ lived until 17G8, 
William Wilkinson, who is called "the most talent- 
ed of the sons of Samuel Wilkinson, Senior, a min- 
ister among the Friends;"^ "a man of more than 



1 Wilkiuson Memoirs, p. 300. 

3 Ibid., p. 359. 

5 Ibid., p. 17. 

1 Wilkinson Mftnoirs, p. 7.3. 



2 Ibid., p. 78. 

4 Bearaan's " Scituate," p. 14. 

6 See page 27. 

8 Ibid., p. 73-76. 



44 STEPHEN HOPKINSc 

ordinary ability, "i and with "a mind well stored 
with knowledge."- Bnt there is little donht that 
Steplieirs grandfather, Ca[)tain Satnncl ^\'ilkinson, 
already allnded to, who did not die niitil 1727, and 
who apparently had the vigorons and nninipaired 
intellect of a man in the prime of life even theu,-^ was 
an important factor in the shaping of the yonng man's 
career. Mention has ali'ead}' heen made' of Captain 
Wilkinson's prominence as a [)nl)lic man and of his 
experience gained in pnblic atfairs. lint light is 
thrown on some other attainments of his in a letter 
Avritten in 1722, by Gabriel Bernon, one of the 
fonnder of King's Chnrch, Providence, (now 81-. 
John's), declaring that h(! "deserves respect for his 
erudition in divine and civil law, historical narrative, 
natural and politic."^ 

Captain Wilkinson was a Friend, and it is evident 
that the general sentiment among the (Quakers of 
that day was not one of very hearty liking for wide 

1 Wilkinson Memoirs, p. 73. 2 Ibid., p. IBO. 

3 Tliougli he must have been between sixty and seventy. (Wilkins'ju 
Memoirs, p. 4S). 

4 See pages 29-31. 

.5 Printed in l^pdike's "Church at Narragansett," p. 53. 



^ EARLY INFLUENCES. 45 

culture or liteniry training. Even in religious mat- 
ters they held strongly to the all-sufficiency of the 
"inward light." AVashington's favorite general, 
Nathanael Greene, has left on record a hit of his 
own experience in the Rhode Island Quaker training 
of thirty- live years later. He says : " I was educated 
a Quaker, and amongst the most superstitions sort. 
My father was a man of great piety." " But his mind 
was over-shadowed with prejudice against literary 
accomplishments. "^ Ills biographer adds that "the 
little book-shelf in the sitting-room corner," in the 
early home of the future General Greene, did not 
"contain anything to awaken a desire of knowing 
more ;"2 and he states in general that — "Literary cul- 
ture was not in favor with the Quakers."^ In contrast 
Avith this, — which may be taken to represent the 
general condition at that time — it is interesting to 
find that in the early home of the future Governor Hop- 
kins, and in that of his grandfather,— an undoubted 
Quaker, — whose influence upon him was continuous 

1 Quoted in tlir " F/ifc of Nathanael Groone," by George Wnsliington 

Grei'iie, I. 10. 

2 Greene's "Nathanael Greene," I. 10-11. ." Ibid., I. 10. 



46 STEPHEN HOPKINS. 

and marked, an important feature was a "circulating 
library." That this library was at first' merely for 
the use of these associated families, is undoubt- 
edly true ; but there are circumstances which have 
led to the supposition that another " circulating 
library," known to exist in this same general locality 
in 177(),- and a<j;ain in 1796,^ was its lineal successor. 
"The origin" of this, says one writer, "may have 
been from the family library of Ruth's parents ;"'* 
(Governor Hopkins's grandparents). And another 
writer remarks ;•'' "It may, however, be considered 
certain that this'' public library was among the 



1 How early, tliere is nothing to indicate with certainty. Certainly if used 
by Stephen Hopkins, as Wilkinson seems to jjoint out, as early as 1710-20. 
("Memoirs of the Wilkinson family," p. ~S;. A great-grandson of Captain 
Wilkinson, William Wilkinson, of Providence, was one of the early librarians 
(1785-88), of Brown University, of which he was a graduate in the class of 1783. 

2 July 0, 1770. See " The diary of Thomas Vernon," (Rhode Island Histor- 
ical Tracts, No. 13), p. 19. 

3 " James Wilkinson," it is said, remembers " said library," about 17'J(). 
(Wilkinson Jlemoirs, p. 78). 

4 Wilkinson Memoirs, p. 78. 

5 Note by Sidney S. Rider, in R. I. Historical Tract, No. 13, p. 20. 

6 That is, the one mentioned in 1776, by Thomas Vernon, and possibly 
identical with the earlier one. 



EARLY INFLUENCES. 47 

earliest, if not the earliest in Khode Island. "' What 

1 "Among the earliest," in fact, in the country, as well as "in Rhode 
Island." The instances are not frequent in which such " public," or semi- 
public libraries are found to have existed early in the last century. There is 
an indistinct allusion, as early as IGS'J, to a " town library " in Boston. (Shurt- 
lefTs "Topographical and historical description of Boston," p. 400). In 1072 
the town of Concord, mass., instructed its selectmen, "that care be taken of 
the * * * bookes, that belong to the towne, that they be kept from abusive 
usage, and not be lent to persons more than one month at a time." (" Cata- 
logue of the Free Public Library of Concord, Mass.," 1875, p. v.). InPhiladel- 
phia, a "parish library," under the control of Christ Church parish, was 
probably established iu 1005." (I'erry's "Historical collectionsof the American 
colonial Church," II. 0), [Pennsylvania]. At Annapolis, in Maryland, there 
is mention of " one and probably two public libraries as early as 1696-7;'' and 
concerning one of these the request was made that "all persons desirious to 
study or read the books" might "have access thereto under proper restric- 
tions." (Ridgely's " Annals of Annapolis," p. 0'.>). At New York a "public 
library," "for the use of the clergy and gentlemen of New York and the 
neighboring provinces," existed in 1729;— perhaps in 1700. (Mr. Horace E. 
Scudder's chapter iu the Ignited States government report on "Public libra- 
ries," 1N7C, I. H). Franklin's "subscription library" at Philadelphia was 
" founded in 17.}1, and incorporated in 1742." (Bigelow's " Benjamin Frank- 
lin," I. 222.) The Newport " subscription library," though started by an asso- 
ciation formed for literary purposes under Bishop Berkeley's auspices in 
1730, (King's " Historical sketch of the Redwood Library and Athena?um," p. 
3), was as Mr. Hunter thinks a suggestion of Redwood himself, {Newport His- 
torical Magazine, II. S0-.S8^, and was incorporated as the Redwood Library in 
1747. (See Records of the colony of Rhode Island, V. 227). Governor Hop- 
kins's " subscription library " at Providence, was begun probably in 1750, 
("Wilkinson Memoirs, p. 366), was known as the Providence Library soon 
after 1754, (Records of the colony of Rhode Island, V. 378-79), and was incor- 
porated 1798. Assuming that the last named institution, (still in exist- 



48 



STEPHEN HOPKINS. 



these hooks were, it woiihl he of uncomnioii interest 
to know, hut we are deharred from that pleasure.' 
As would naturally he cxpeeted from this early hent 
given to his development, the taste for reading, and 
the faculty of usini^: hooks to the hest advantao:e, 
Avere eharacteristie of him throuo-hout life.--^ He 
himself hegan early to collect a lihrai"\' of his own, 
Avhich, says one who was a!)le to examine it, '' was 



ciice as the '• I'roviilcucc Athenaniiu"), i.s llie t-nriit'st I'loviileiicc library 
whose origin eiiii be located with entire certainty, only six towns appear to 
have preceded this in tlie establishment of a similar library; — Boston, Con- 
cord, Philadelphia, Anmipolis, New York, and Newport. It is hoped, how- 
ever, that more lifi'if ''"ii be thrown on this earlier library, above alluded 
to. 

I " The writings," says the author of a short sketch of him, ''of Spenser 
and Shakespeare, Milton, Jei-emy Taylor, John Banyan, Dean Swift, Addison," 
and others were extant. (Wilkinson Jlemoirs, p. :i(JO-iU). His own writings 
sliow a familiarity with more than one of these authors. 

■Z " He was a close and se\ ere student, filling up all the sjiare hours of his 
life with reading." (Bi'aman's " Sciluate," p. ^1). " He attached himself in 
early youth to the study of books and men, and continued to be a constant and 
mi)roving reader, a close and careful observer, until the period of his death." 
(Sanderson's "Biography of the signers," VI. ■US). The same writer dwells 
upon " his habitual deep research, and the indefatigability with which he pene- 
trated the recesses, instead of skimming the surface of things," (p. L'-iS). Presi- 
dent John Adams, who knew him late in life, says of him : " He," [Governor 
Hopkins], " had read Greek, Roman, and British history, and was familiar 
with Engliuh poetry, particularly Pope, Thomson, and Miltou, and the flow of 



EAKLY INFLUENCES. 49 

large and valuable for the time."i And he had not 
been a citizen of Providence many years^ before he 
found kindred spirits^ willing to unite with him in 
sending to England for such books as they found 
desirable."' This was the origin of the Providence 
Library,'' the second public library in the colony, 
(for the Kcdwood Library at Newport antedated it 
by several j^ears ;)^ and the fifth in New England."^ 

liis soul made all of his reading our own, and seemed to bring to recollection 
in all of us of all we had ever read." (Works of John Adams, III. 12). He 
" was," says William Hunter, of Newport, " a man of deep and original thought 
and persevering reading." (Xewport Historical Jfagazine, 11. 141). Mr. S. 
S. Rider, in the note already cited, (U. I. Historical Tract No. 13, p. 20), says 
in connection witli this library of Governor Hopkins's boyhood : " In these 
early years there came from this region very well educated and very able men; 
may we not reasonably infer that it was from this source that their learning 
came? They had not schools, they must have read these books, and thinking 
did the rest." His " close application to books " is cited among other circum- 
-stances, by Mr. Dwight, in connection with his " application to study," as 
accounting for his success. (Nathaniel Dwight's '• Sketches of the lives of the 
signers of the Declaration of Independence," p. 69). 

1 Seaman's " Scitiiate,"p. 18. See also Mr. Beaman's article in the Pi-ovi- 
dence Journal, May 26, 1855, where he mentions some of them. 

2 As early as 1754. 

3 Some of them are named in the It. I. Col. Records, V. 378. 

4 Itecords of the colony of Rhode Island, V. 378-71). 

5 See also Chapter IV. 

6 The Redwood Library dates from 1747. • 

7 These five are: (1) the Boston library, variously known as the "town 
library," the " public library," etc., as early as 1653, ("Memorial history of 

5 



50 STKPHEN HOPKINS. 

And yot nil this is beside and apart from the ques- 
tion of his hick of educational advantages. The 
result in his case was that, to quote the language of 
President Manning, "possessing an uncommonly 
elevated genius, his constant and assiduous applica- 
tion in the pursuit of knowledge"' rendered him 
distinguished. But with less highly endowed minds 
this would not have been the case.^ Even in his 
case, one can but retlect that if he attained such dis- 
tinction without the discipline and aid of that train- 
ing which John Adams^ not long after was enjoying 
as a Braintree boy in the schools of that town, and 
later at Harvard College ; or JcHerson^ as a student 

Boston," lA'. t;?S); (,') tlu* Concord town libiary as oarly as Ki?;;; (:j) Kind's 
Cliapcl Library (Bo.ston) as early as 1008, (Grconwoort'.s " History of King's 
Chapel," p. 55) ; (4) t!ie Itedvvood Library, at Newport, 1747: (5) the Trovi. 
deiiee Library, at Providence, as early as 1754. 

Tlie I'rince liibrary and the New England Library, in Boston, were not 
established until 175N. (II. S. Government report, I. 3L'-:!3). 

1 Printed in the Providence Gazette, July 10, 1785. 

2 It was only, to quote from Mr. Dwight, cited al)ove, " the power of a 
strong mind, and application to 8tudy, by which a want of enlarged means for 
ac(juirlng an early and .lystematic education," was, in his case, in a wholly 
exceptional manner, " overcome." (Dwight's " Signers," p. OU). 

3 John Adams's Life by C. F. Adams. ( Works, L 13-14).. 

4 Morsse'.s " Thomas Jefferson," p. 5-7. 



EAKLY INFLUENCES. 51 

at Williamsburgh in 1760; — the brilliancy of his 
career would have been even greater. No one 
realized this more than Stephen Hopkins himself. A 
self-educated man, he was conscious of the inevitable 
limitations and defects of the " self made man." 
"Having himself felt the want," saj's Wilkinson, "of 
instruction in early life, and afterwards realized the 
advantages of extensive attainments in knowledge by 
his own efforts, he was desirous that others should 
possess and enjoy the means for cultivating and im- 
proving their minds, on a liberal and broad founda- 
tion." To use his own language, "nothing tends so 
much to the good of the commonwealth as a proper 
culture of the minds "^ of its youth. This was a 
doctrine for the application of which there was a 
wide Held open in Rhode Island; and it is very 
much to be regretted that the pre-occupation of his 
energies by calls in other directions prevented his 
pressing it to an effective issue. Had not the revolu- 
tionar}' struggle been precipitated when it was, and 
had it not thus engrossed the universal attention, it 

1 Printed in Sanderson's " Biography of the Signers," VI. ijl. 



52 STEPHEN HOPKINS. 

is by no means improbable that a public school sys- 
tem might have been secured in Rhode Island nearly 
half a century earlier than the time at which it 
actually was instituted. Nor is it less probable that 
Stephen Hopkins would have been the efficient actor 
in the movement.^ 

These early years, however, were by no means 
unoccupied and unimproved. At the time when 
children in our day would be at school Stephen 
Hopkins was doubtless helping his father on his 
farm. At a later period he was putting in practice 
the principles of surveying which he had learned of 
his grandfather and his uncle. It is impossible not 
to see that, as in the case of the young Virginian 
surveyor, George Washington,- a little later, this 

1 For a brief nienfion of Uie few and scattered efforts to establish schools 
in various parts of Rhode Island, from 1640 to 1828, see Barnard's " Keport of 
public scliools in Rhode Island," 1848, and Stone's "Manual of education," 
(Providence, 1874), p. 0-10. The " act to establish public schools" was passed 
at the January session, 1828. 

2 In laud surveying, says Irving, Washington " schooled himself tlioroughly, 
using the highest processes of the art; making surveys about the neighbor- 
hood, and keeping regular field books." lie adds that this occupation made 
him acquainted also witli the country, the nature of the soil in various parts, 
and the value of localities." (Irving's " Life of Washington," eh, S). 



EARLY INFLUENCFTS. 53 

was an occupation sure to result in extending bis 
acquaintance with dilFerent portions of the ccdony, 
and with nien^ as well as aflairs. Not only did it 
bring him in contact with the various outlying 
localities, in such a way as to give him that intimate 
familiarity with the affairs of the coh^ny at large, 
which is at all periods of his career very apparent; 
but it had the certainly no less important effect of 
bringing him into consultation and communication 
with the representatives of other colonies, when as 
Avas natural, his skill as a surveyor caused him to be 
appointed on the commissions to determine boundary 
(juestions.^ 

While but scanty light is thrown upon these years 
of his life by any records now accessible, it is appar- 
ent that another factor is to be recognized as enter- 
ing into the careers of his brothers, and into his own 
as well, from a somewhat eai ly period in this cen- 
tury, — namely, interest in commercial enterprises. 

1 It is significant ihat liis early attention to quote Irom Sanderson's account, 
(VI. 248) was directed to the study not only "of books," but "ofnieu." This 
never ceased to be true of liini. » 

2 R. I. Col. Records, IV. 559, 590; V. 15, 27, 35, 252, 265, .333, 348. 



54 STEPHEN HOPKINS. 

No such tendency had manifested itself in the genera- 
tions preceding his, in his own ancestiy. But not 
only was he himself very early interested in mercan- 
tile operations, (as early as 1740, probably, employ- 
ino" several vessels in constant service),^ but h"is 
eldest brother, William, had even before this "en- 
gaged in a maritime life."- A younger brother, 
Samuel, became commander of a vessel early in life, 
and in the course of one of his voyages in 1744, 
died at Ilispaniola, in the West Indies.^ But his 
brother Esek, still younger than Samuel, had "in 
the summer of 1738," "in the twentieth year of his 
ase," l)ade "adieu to the old homestead." He 
"journeyed to Providence and became a sailor, soon 
rising to the position of captain."^ "He had found 
his place," says Mr. Beaman,-^ the annalist of the 
Hopkins family, "and soon rose through all the 
ofrades of office to be the master and owner of vessels. 
He made Newport, then a place of considerable 

1 In that year he was in partnership with Godfrey Malbone, of Newport, in 
the ownership of several vessels. 

2 Hopkins genealogy, p. 12. 3 Ibid., p. 20. 
4 Bearaan's "Scituate," p. 16-17. 

6 " Historical collections of the Essex Institute," II. 121. 



EARLY INFLUENCES. 55 

commerce, his residence ;"^ marrying- into a family 
already intimately identified with the strikin*"- 
development of that seaport. ' Stephen Hopkins him- 
self was engaged in active co-operation not only with 
his brother, hnt with other Newport merchants.^ 
The tendency towards commercial enterprises which 
had thus manifested itself so strongly in this genera- 
tion, was no less apparent in the next. Of the four 
sons^ of Stephen Hopkins who reached maturit}^ 
every one followed the sea, and all except Silvanus^ 
became commanders of vessels. The same is true 
of his nephews, Captain Christopher Hopkins,''' Cap- 
tain John B. Hopkins,^ and Captain Esek Hopkins, 
Jr.» 

This is a noteworthy record.'-* That the govern- 

1 He removed to Providence, however, in ir55. (Hopkins genealogy, p. 2i) 

2 He "married, Nov, 28, ir-il, Desire, daughter of Ezekiel Burroughs, of 
Newport." (Hopkins genealogy, p. 24). 

3 Malbone, Whipple, Redwood, and the Wantons. See Chapter IV. 

4 Rufus, John, Silvanus, and George. (Hopkins genealogy, p. 18,28-33). 

5 And he died " at the age of eighteen," when he " had advanced to the 
position of second-in-command." (Hopkins genealogy, p. 31). 

6 Hopkins genealogy, p. 2«. 7 Ibid., p. 3o-.3(). 

8 Ibid., p. 41-42. 

9 See also Moses Brown's statistics, cited in Chapter V. 



56 STEPHEN HOPKINS. 

or's fiimily .should have thus identified itself so 
thoroughly with commercial pursuits is, of course, 
partly to be accounted for by the fact that the early 
manhood of Stephen Hopkins was contemporaneous 
with that long-delayed awakening on the part of the 
Providence community to the exceptional natural 
advantages of its position at the head of its admira- 
ble bay^ It seems certain, also, tliat the mathemati- 
cal training received from his grandfather and uncle, 
on which Moses Brown- dwells in more than one 
place, had a tendency to stimulate the study and 
practice of navigation,^ as well as surveying. 

One other clement in his early training remains to 
be noted ; namely, its moi'al and religious side. 

1 " Very slowly," says Mr. Dorr, " tlie old fanning town awakened to a 
perception oftlie commercial value of tlie Bay." " Until the seventeenth cen- 
tury was waning to its close, no sloops or scliooners, save those of Jlassachu- 
setts and New York, enlivened the wafers of the bay." (Dorr's " I'rovidence," 
p. yo). 

2 See his letter to Robert Wain, in ls^3, (in several places). 

3 " Tliere seems," says Wilkinson, " to have been a passion for this branch 
of mathematics, [surveying], which has been handed down from father to 
son." "No branch of study," it was maintained, "would be more useful. 
After surveying, navigation was recommended, as these two brandies gave a 
person ascendancy on land and water." (Wilkinson Memoirs, p. 361). 



EARLY INFLUENCES. 57 

There is nothing to indicate positively the religions 
predilections of his father. We have only the nega- 
tive prol)ahility that he was not a Friend. A Friend, 
however, his mother was, as has been noted ;' and 
Governor Hopkins himself, later in life,- identified 
himself very completely with that body of Christians, 
even to the extent, to quote from Moses Brown, his 
constant co-laborer, (and himself a Friend), of his 
havins: the Friends' meetinjjs " sometimes held in 
the winter at his dwelling-house."^ It is hardly 
probable that his early life was passed as a member 
of the Friends' society. In fact, various occurrences 
in the early lives of William, Stephen, and Esek, 

1 See page 2',>. 

2 How late in life is not (luite certiiin. His first and seeonil wives were 
both Friends, but his second marriage only was solemnized in Friends' Meet- 
ing. (" Historical collections of the Kssex Institute," II. 120). It was at tliis 
time, says the same account, (p. 120), that "he connected himself with the 
'Friends.'" Yet his first wife was of unbroken Quaker ancestry, whether 
herself a Friend or not. His first marriage was by a justice of tlie peace, 
and appears to have taken place " at the house of the bride's father." (Wil- 
kinson Memoirs, p. 363). Governor Hopkins severed his connection with the 
Society of Friends in 1773. (Records of Smithfield Monthly Meeting of Friends, 
1773). For the cu'cumstances of this occurrence see Chapter VIII., of this 
work. 

3 Letter of Moses Brown to Robert Wnln, in 1823. 



58 STEPHEN HOPKINS. 

render it very improbable that they were in mem- 
l)ership with this most uuworhlly body ol" believers. 
With Stephen it seems clear that the rigorous and 
unremitting demands of the public service, — in 
itself a discipline, — had a natural tendency to sober 
him and regulate his life. From the time that its 
grasp was tightened on him, not to be relaxed until 
extreme old age, there is good reason to believe that 
his private life presented a high standard of blame- 
lessness ; and his public life, if judged in the light of 
the times, suffers not very much by comparison. It 
would be strange indeed if the seething political 
distractions of the years 1755-68, should not have 
furnished detractions of the bitterest nature. i But 
there are other sources of testimony than these,- and 
in the simplicity of his demeanor, the hearty frank- 
ness and the calm dignity of manner which were 
generally characteristic of him, he reHected no 
undeserved credit on the training of his intelligent 
Quaker mother. 

1 For a consideration of tliis point in detail, see Cliapter VII. 

2 Among otlirrs, Moses Brown, and President Manning, already cited. 



EARLY INFLUKNCES. 50 

He nifirriecP early,- however, before entering to 
any extent on [)uhlic life. His wife, Sarah Scott, 
was, like him, of Quaker stock, her great-grand- 
father, Kicharcl Scott, ^ having been the carliest4 
Rhode Island man to embrace the doctrines of 
Friends. On her mother's side she was the griind- 
daughter of that Major Joseph Jcnckes,^ who, in 
1655, came from Essex Connty, Massachusetts, and 

1 October 9, 1726. (Providence Ilecord of births, marriages, etc., I. 48). 
They were not married in Friends' meeting, but by Sarah's uncle, William 
Jenckes, justice of the peace. 

2 At the age of 19. n is wife was of tlie same age. (Willcinson Slemoirs, 
p. 362). 

3 Richard Scott, arriving among tlie " second-comers " in 1636, signed the 
well-known "compact" of Aug. 20, of tliat year. (R. I. Col. Records, I. 14). 
See the Historical Magiisine, 2d series, VI. 225-20; also the " I'roceedings of 
the Rhode Island Historical Society," 1880-81, p. 15. 

4 "The first Quaker tliere," is the language of Governor Hopkins's family 
record. (Foster Papers, VI. 12). His wife, Catherine, was the daughter of 
Rev. Edward llarbury. (Wintlirop's " History of New England," I. 293). Her 
sister Anne, was the celebrated Mrs. Hutchinson, of Boston and Newport. 
(See Palfrey's "New Enghind," I. ch. 12). 

5 The father of Major Joseph Jenckes settled at Lynn, Mass., and is named 
as "the lirst founder 'who worked in brass and iron' on the western continent." 
(Lewis's "History of Lynn," p. 2US). Among liis descendants are Governor 
Joseph Jenckes, named on tlie next page; Judge Rufus Hopkins, tlie son of 
Governor Hopkins; Nicholas Brown, the founder of Brown University, and 
John Carter Brown, his son ; and the late Hon, Thomas A. Jenckes. 



60 STEPHEN HOPKINS. 

set up ;i forge near Pavvtucket Falls. i I ler mother's 
l^rother, Joseph Jenckes, a man of iincoinmon abili- 
ties, had been serving as Deputy-governor with the 
aged Governor Cranston, (who was now nearly 
seventy years of age), since 17ir>, with the excep- 
tion of a single year.'^ At the very next election^ he 
was chosen Governor of Rhode Island. He was thus 
the tirst man, not a resident of Newport, who had 
ever held that position under the charter ; and the 
only one, with one' exception, until this young man 
who had just married his niece, was elected to the 
same position in 1755.'' Iler father. Major'' Syl- 
vanus Scott, occupied the homestead estate on the 
Blackstone river, at what is now Lonsdale,^ not 
very far from the Wilkinson and Hopkins homesteads. 

1 Sc-e Goo(iiicir.-> " Ui.^Ioiical sketcli oftlif town oC I'awtucket," p. 18-30. 

2 1721-22. ■■', 172r. 

4 Goveiiiur Williiim Gifeiie, of \A'arwick, ir4:)-4.'>, 1746-17,174^-50. Also, 
afterwards, 1757-58. 

5 Stephen Uopkins was elected to succeed (iovernor Greene, in Jlay, 1755 
« "Major Sylvanus Scott" is the language of Governor llopkins's family 

record in 1754. (Foster Tapers, VI. 12). He is previously referred to as 
"Cai>t. Sylvanus Scott" in the list of nieniljer-i of the General Assembly, ilay, 
170y. (R. I. Col. Records, IV. f.7). 
7 Wilkinson Memoirs, p. 01. 



EARLY INFLUENCES. () 1 

Siinih, the Governor's first wife, was the mother of 
all of his seven children ; none having been horn to 
him by his second wife.^ These children, (whose 
names will be found in the Appendix),- were all 
born at his Scituate home, with the exception of the 
eldest.^ Riifns, the eldest, and John, the second 
son, were apparently named for the two younger 
brothers of their father. Silvanus (or Sylvanus) , re- 
ceived his name from his maternal onuidfather, Kuth 
received her grandmother's name. Seventy acres of 
land, at Chapumiscook, were immediately made over 
to Stephen and his wife by his father;'' which amount 



1 '• He was twice married, living willi each oC his wives just twenty-seven 
years." (" Uistorical collections of the Kssex Institute," 11. 120). His allec- 
tion for the three children of his second wife, (his own step-childrcn), appears 
to huve been very marked. One of them writes : ">'ever was father kinder 
than he was to us children." (" Historical collections of the Ksse.x Institute," 
II. 120). 

2 See Appendi.x C 

3 Governor Hopkins's entry in his family record, (Foster Papers, VI. 12), 
with regard to Rufiis is that he "was born in Cranston," — doubtless at his 
own birthplace at the Mashapaug homestead. This had been, since 172:1, the 
home of Stephen's elder brother. Colonel William Hopkins. (Hopkins gene- 
alogy, p. 11). 

4 Wilkinson Memoirs, p. :{fJ3. 



(52 STP^rilEN HOrKINS. 

was gr;u1ually increased from other sources;* and he 
was apparently destined to settle down in life as an 
np-country farmer. 



1 P^roiii his gi-aiulfather, Samuol Wilkinson, lie received ninety acres more, 
about the same time. (Willcinson Memoirs, p. 3().3). This land was situated 
at einipumiscook, in tlie vicinity of Iiis father's residence. In 17L'3 his grand- 
father, Major William Hopkins, liad died at his Mashapaug homestead; conlirm- 
ing this valuable estate, in all, about 200 acres, to his grandson. Col. AVilliam 
Hopkins, the elder brother of Stephen, but contirming the Cliapuniiscook prop- 
erty to Stephen's father. (See his will, printed in the Hopkins genealogy, p. 
fi5-6G). Two years later, 1725, his widow died, making this same grandson, Wil- 
liam, the e.Kecntor of the i-emainder of the pioperty. (See her will, printed in 
the Hopkins genealogy, p. 71). In 1727, Capt. Samuel Wilkinson died, leaving 
no will. (Wilkinson Memoirs, p. 51). IJy the settlement of the estate, under 
his son Joseph as administrator, doubtless someporlicm came to his grandson, 
Stephen Hopkins. Stephen received by deed his father's Cliapuniiscook 
farm. (Essex Inst. Hist. Coll. II. 121). In 1738, William Hopkins, Stephen's 
father, died at Cliapuniiscook, dividing the remainder cif his estate, by his will, 
equally between his two sons, Stephen and Esek. (See his will, printed in the 
Hopkins genealogy, p. 73). IMrs. I'.uth Hopkins, their mother, had died some- 
time between 1721 and 1731. (^Vilkinson Memoirs, p. sti). Ksek reliiKiuished 
his portion to Stephen not long after 173S, and left for sea. ("P^ssex Inst. Hist. 
Coll." II. 121). 



CIIAITER IV. 

ENTRANCE ON TUBLIC LIFE AS A COUNTRY MEMBER 

The expectation that Stephen Hopkins wouki, like 
his father, quietly continue to till his fields in the se- 
clusion of Chapumiscook was destined to disappoint- 
ment. For five years nothing is heard of hini,^ but 
soon after attaining his majority he manifested a de- 
cided bent for public life. There can be little doubt 
that the disposition was an inherited one ; and that 
he was following out the lines indicated by the 
careers of his two grandfathers, Major Hopkins- and 
Captain Wilkinson,"^ in their earlier, though less 
activ'c generations. When in 1731,'^ the town of 
Providence, hitherto intact, was summarily divided'' 

1 He was, liowever, no doubt, practising his duties as surveyor in various 
parts ol tlie colony, as occasion niiglit arise. 

2 See pages 10-25. . 3 See pages l".»-.31, .'M, 11. 

4 Feb. 20, 1730-1. 5 U. I. Col. Records, IV. J 12-1.5. 



64 STP^PIIEN IIOrivINS. 

into four, William Hopkins's neighborhood at Chap- 
uraiscook was included within the town of Scituate, 
the south-western one of the four towns as then 
organized. 

The first official action of the newly fledged town- 
ship, in its first town meeting, was to choose a mod- 
erator ; and the young man, " Stephen Hopkins, then 
only twenty-four years of age," Avas immediately 
chosen. 1 "This fact," says Mr. Beaman, " is signifi- 
cant of the very high opinion entertained of him in 
his native town,- as a man of business and compe- 
tent to preside over public meetings. "^ When the 
next annual town mee'ting came around,^ he was 
chosen town clerk of Scituate.^ The duties of this 
oi3ice, so important in a newly constituted town, 
from their comprising the registration of deeds, and 
other land records, were labors for which his train- 
ing as a surveyor had eminently fitted him,'^ and he 

1 Biamaii's " Scituate," p. 19. 

2 " lUs native town." It was not his native town, tliougli as is stated olso- 
wliere, it lias been widely so considered. See pages 9-10. 

3 Beaman's "Scituate," p. 1'.). 4 Maicli20, 17.31-2. 
5 Letter of Moses Brown to Robert Wain in 1823. 

(i " The town records of Scituate," says Beaman, (p. 21), " attest that he 
•was familiar with drudgery." 



ENTRANCE ON PUBLIC LIFE. (i5 

held this i)]ace for ten years ; in fact until his removal 
from the town in 1742.1 Meanwhile, however, his 
fellow-townsmen were exacting from him other ser- 
vice. At the annual town meeting in 1785,- he was 
chosen president of the town council.^ This posi- 
tion also he held by successive re-elections, until his 
resignation on account of removing to Providence. • 
In 17oG, he became one of the justices of the Court 
of Common Pleas, ^ and also justice of the i)eace.'' 

The records of the town of Scituatc for these ten 
years, in his handwriting, are still in good preserva- 
tion, and are of interest from their legibility and neat- 
ness. Written before the nervous difficulty' of his 

1 Beaniaii's " Scituate," p. K>. '^ jMarcli 1."., I7:!4-5. 

3 Letter of Moses Brown, 182:5. 4 Sanderson, VI. 2L'7. 

5 Records of Providfuce County Court of Common Pleas, I. IK',. 

a See Appendix F. 

7 " For a number of jcars previous " to 177(), writes Mr. Wahi, (on the basis 
of Moses Brown's information), " lie had been afflicted witli a nervous affec- 
tion," and when he wrote at all, which was seldom, he was compelled to guide 
the ri^ht hand with the left. The venerable Moses Brown, of Providence, has, 
on vjirious occasion.s, acted as his amanuensis." (Sanderson's " Signers," VI. 
245). " From my boyhood," says another writer, " in looking at the Declara- 
tion of Indep.ndence, I imagined the autograph of Stephen [Hopkins] iudi- 
cated a poor penman." " What was my surprise," he adds, " in e.Kamining 
the records of the town of Scituate." (Wilkinson Memoirs, p. :i05). 



66 STEPHEN HOPKINS. 

later years had begun to aifect him, " every page of 
the first and succeeding books," says Mr. Wilkinson, 
"bears ample evidence of penmanship excelled by 
few, even masters of the art. At first for a few 
pages his recording lacked boldness, ]>eing a hair 
mark, but improvement manifests itself until the 
beautifully shaded letters are a close imitation of 
neatl}^ engraved copper plate. "' In 1734 and 1735, 
Stephen Hopkins, with two other citizens, secured 
from the General Assembly the action long needed, 
establishinjy the Plainfield road throuo;h Scituate on 
a new and improved location.- In 1737, the pro- 
prietors of Providence had occasion to prepare new 
maps and plats of the estates. Stephen Hopkins 
was therefore engaged "to revise the streets, and 
project a map of Scituate and Providence, which 
work required no little knowledge of mathematics, 
and was executed to the entire satisfaction" of the 
proprietors.^ In 1740, Stephen Hopkins " was 

1 Wilkinson Memoirs, p. 305. 2 R. I. Col. Records, IV. 402, 512. 

3 Wilkinson Memoirs, p. 305-06. The records of the proprietors also show 
that in 1738 a committee on revisinj^ the highways was appointed, (Stephen's 
brother being chairman), perhaps in continuation of the suivey of 1737. (Dorr's 
"Providence," p. 13!t). 



ENTRANCE ON PUBLIC LIFE. 67 

appointed surveyor of the proprietor's lands, and 
also acted as clerk to the proprietors. "^ He was thus 
closely idcntilied with improvements in connection 
with the now rapidly advancing seaport, which 
"were most valuable, and mark a stage in the devel- 
opment of the town."- 

But during these ten years Stephen Hopkins's ser- 
vices had been found useful not merely by his towns- 
men and the Providence proprietors, but by the col- 
ony. In 1731, when Scituate for the first time 
chose representatives to the General Assembly, Ste- 
phen Hopkins's uncle, Joseph Wilkinson, appears to 
have been the sole Representative for the first year.^ 
But in the next year"* the people of Scituate turned 
to their energetic young town clerk, Stephen Hop- 
kins, and elected him one of the two representatives.^ 
From this time until 1738, inclusive, there was but 
one vear,*^ when he was not one of the Scituate rep- 
resentatives in the General Assembly, though with 

1 Wilkinson Memoirs, p. 3(i6. -' Dorr's "Providence," p. 240. 

3 R. I. Col. Records, IV. 449. The entry under 1731 in P.ounuin's Scituate, 
(Appendix, p. 1), is apparently an error. 

4 1732. 5 R. I. Col. Records, IV. 46S. 6 1734. 



G8 STErnEN hotkins. 

a new colleague in each new year.^ In 1730 and 
1740 he is named lirst on the list of justices of the 
Court of Common Pleas for Providence County, -^ 
havinui; heen first chosen one of the justices of that 
court three years hefore ;^ but in 17-11 he was again 
chosen representative from Scituate,^ and at this ses- 
sion he was chosen Speaker"' of the General Assem- 
bly. In 1711 he was appointed clerk of the Court 
of Conanon Pleas.'' 

The time of Stephen Hopkins's entrance into public 
life, and participation in the government of the col- 
ony, it will b.; noticed, was in the administration of 
Governor William Wjuiton ;' the Hrst of the fourS 
members of the Wanton family'" win* served the col- 
ony as governor. At more than one [)oint it will 
appear that there was a cordial understanding be- 

1 R. I. Col. Records, IV. 480, 507, 5-^7, 534, 54;i. i See Appendix F. 

."5 See Record.-; of Hie Trovideuce Court of ('oiiiinon I'leas, I. !(>:], 201, 2-J4, 
250, 277, nors, 31'.l, :;41, .",70, 381. 
4 R. I. Col. Kecord.s, v. 'Jl. 5 Uiid., V. Jl. () Sec Appeiidi.x F. 

7 1732-33. 

8 AVilliam Wiinton, 17:!-.'-:'.3; ,)olui Wanton, 1734-40; Gideon Wanton, 1745- 
40, 1747-48; .Iosei)li Wanton, 170!»-75. 

9 See narlleltV " Uisfory of tlio Wanton family," (U. I. nistoricul Tract 
Ko. 3), for an extended account of tliis intlueiitial family. 



"T+' 



ENTRANCE ON PUBLIC LIFE. 69 

tween this Newport family aiul Mr. Hopkins's sup- 
porters. ^ By no metuis tlie least distinguished of 
the four was the above-mentioned Governor Willium 
Wanton, who died in office in December, 173;3. 
Dean Berkeley, one of the most distinguished of the 
lono- hue of eminent men who have honored Newport 
by their residence there, says Mr. Bartlett, "dined 
every Sunday with Governor Wanton.'"-^ He was a 
most useful man and one to whom the commerce of 
Newport and of the colony in general may be con- 
sidered to be largely indebted.^ Of his brother, 
Governor John Wanton, unfortunately, not so much 
can be said. The action by which he is best remem- 

1 A son of tlie last nieutioned Governor Wanton was deputy-governor in 
1761-05, irO'-OS, during Stephen Hopkins's governorship. (See Bartlett's 
" Wanton family," p. SO;. Their commercial transactions were iifcessarily 
frequent. (See chapter V.) One circumstance which may have had some in- 
tluence in this matter is, that the first three of them were, like Governor 
Hopkins, Friends. In the prolonged Greene and Wanton contest, 174.3-55, 
it seems probable that Wanton had the support of Providence. This attitude 
of the Wantons is attributed, on the authority of the late Stephen Gould, of 
Newport, to a quarrel between the AVanton and Ward families, very early in 
the century. 

2 Bartlett's " Wanton fanuly," p. 34. 

3 See Governor Cozzens's addrc-s at the " Dedication of the school-house 
erected by the trustees of the Long Wliarf," Newport, 1803, p. 25. 



70 STEPHEN HOPKINS. 

bered is his opposition, as Dcpuly-govcnior, in 17H] , 
t(^ the eniiiiently jiitlicioiis (li8ai)[)roval' by Governor 
Jeneks,- of the '"act for emitting £()(), 000 in pnblic 
bills of ei'C(lit"3 in conseqnence of whieh the "liard 
money }):irty " went out of power. 'i A course of paper 
money emission, already found to be ruinous in its 
tendency, was thereupon pursued with an added 
impetus and recklessness which made the subsequent 
attempts of l\hode Island to establish a secure sys- 
tem of finance a most diHicult undertaking. ^ The 
name of Ste[)hen Hopkins is found signed to a report 
presented to the General Assembly-, Fel)ruary 27, 
174',), 'i wliich, with abundant opportunity for ol)serv- 

1 See 1{. 1. ( ol. llci'oi (Is, l\ . i,)l>. '!'];(■ tliiiiicr iiavc the govt riior no iiotual 
" velo " power. 

2 Sfcplicii Hopkins luid married liis niece in 172G. See pnges 5i'-C0. 

3 Sec li. I. Col. Itecoids n. ^•'ii. (Also IV. 450-Gi). The act is printed in 
tlie " Tublic laws," 17;!1, p. L';il-34. 

4 See Cotter's work, " Some acconnt of the bills of creditor paper money 
of Khode Island," (K. 1. Historical Tract, No. 8), p. .id. 

5 " An altemjit " was made in October, 17(iO, says Arnold, " to settle np the 
paper money oHiee eicated at the time of tlie early bank issues." (Arnold's 
"Khod(> Island," 11. l.'i.'4). lUit this was not done, and the e.xigencies of the 
war of inde])endcnce found IMiode Lsjand unprepared. Cotter's " Hills of 
credit," alujve cited, e.xannnes llie operatiinis ol tlie ten issues of this ruinous 
currency from 17 10 to KXC). 

At this same session lie served on another committee in relation to the 
settlenitnt of the outstanding issues. (H. I. Col. Kecords, V. "02-03). 



■'^mt 



ENTK\NCa ON PUBLIC LIFK. 71 

iiii; the ()i)ci'ati()n of this fbllv, reiimrks that the 
tendency is, to "daily sink tlie value of paper hills. "' 
These were years of peace.- The home govern- 
ment had not been at wai; with any European power 
since 1718. Hostilities with Spain, however, were 
threatening,-' and this colony thought it necessary in 

1732 to pass an act' for strengthening Fort George, 
on Goat Island.'' This was made the excuse in 

1733 for the issue of £ 104,000. ^ The pailicular 
spot at which the ever vigorous boundary disputes 
were now agitated was the eastern line of the colony, 
comprising the "Attleborougli gore," now Cumber- 
land." At the May session, 173G, Stephen Hopkins 

1 TottHi-'s " Bills of credit," p. ISs. 

i Tlie " war of tlie Spanish succession," (" Queen Anne's war "), closed in 
that year. 

3 The " war of the Austrian succession," ( King George's war), in which 
England and Spain were again pitted against each other, actually broke out in 
1744, twelve years later. 

4 K. 1. Col. Kecords, IV. 4r5-r0. 

5 This fort which seems to have changed its name with the accession of a 
new sovereign was originally created in (iueeii Anne's reign, in 17(l'J, (Arnold's 
" Rhode Island," II. . '5), and was known as Fort Ann in iru.'i. (K. I. Col. 
Records, III. 524). 

() Potter's " Bills of credit," p. 40. 

7 At first a part of Rehoboth, in the Plymouth Colony, but from l('i'j4 to 
1746-7, included in Attleborougli, Blass. 



72 STEPHEN HOPKINS. 

was appointed one of the committee of three,' (his 
brother, Colonel William Hopkins, ^ being another 
member,) to procure certain much needed evidences. 
The sessions of the General Assembly at this time 
were held successively at Newport, Providence, War- 
wick, East Greenwich, and South Kingstown, but 
Newport was universally regarded as the metropolis 
of the colony, and by far the greater number of the 
sessions were held there. The Superior Court also, 
of which Stephen Hopkins was to be chosen only a 
few years later (1747)^ Assistant-justice, had been 
held exclusively' at Newport.'^ To a young man^ of 

1 U. I. t;ol. Kecorils. IV. o'J2. 

2 Only occasional glimpses of Colonel Uopkins in his native town are to be 
lound (luring tins period. During n)ucli the larger part of the twenty years, 
ir.'!0-50, he was at sea. (Wilkinson Memoirs, p. 350, o52). 

.•i 11. I. Manual, 1882-83, p. 134. Records of the K. 1, Superior t:ourt, I. 1. 

4 The plan ol' holding the sessions of this court in succession at the several 
court-houses in the colony dates from 1717. "Acts and laws," 1752, p. 28. 

5 "The salutary influence of Newport," says Chief-justice Durfee, in the 
work already cited, "on the early history of tlie state, has never been fully 
appreciated." " Tlie citizens of no other town," he elsewhere says, "Minder- 
stood so well or cultivated so assiduously tlie amenities of every day life. Its 
flourishing commerce put it more tuUy en rapjiort than was any other town, 
with all that was best in the intellectual life of the old world." (Durfee's 
" Gleanings from the judicial histoiy of Rhode Island," p. 18; p. 17-18). 

6 An interesting picture of the impression made by Newport in a few years 



ENTRANCE ON PUBLIC LIFK. 73 

his iiuirked ciipabilities, his quicli instincts, and his 
lively appreciation of all phases of hnmnn life, there 
can be no doubt that the two or three occasions i in 
every year when his duties called him to Newport, 
were opportunities which he would by no means 
allow to pass unimproved. This, it must be re- 
membered, was the Newport of Dean Berkeley ,2 and 
of the genial divines, Rev. Mr. llonyman^ and Rev. 
Dr. MacSparran ;^ of Smibert, the painter,'^ and a 
little later of the youthfid Gilbert Stuart;*^ of such 

after, on the iiiiiul of a much younger man than Stephen Hopkins at this time, 
may be found in the life of General Greene .—"As the little sloop rounded 
Long Wharf, he caught his first glimpse of ships that but a few weeks before 
had been lying at a wharf in London or Bristol ; * * * as he walked up Church 
Lane, he saw the steeple of Trinity rising higli over Berkeley's organ, and 
farther on, the Corinthian portico of the Hedwood Library, opening upon more 
books than it seemed possible to read in a lifetime." (Greene's " Natlmuael 
Greene," I. 19). 

1 As member of the General Assembly and judge of the Superior Court. 

2 Berkeley was a resident liere from 17-".) to 1731. IHs "Alciphron " belongs 
to this period. 

3 See Bull's " Jlemoirs of Rhode Island," 17J0; Updike's Narragansett 
Church, p. 30i-0(). The spelling " Honeyman " is also rarely found. 

4 See Updike's " Xarragansett Cliurch." For some communication which 
passed between Dr. MacSparran and Stephen Hopkins, see Moses Brown's letter 
to Robert Wain, 1823. 

5 See Tuckerman's " American artist life," p. -11-43. 

6 Stuart was sketching in Newport from 1769 to 1774. (Updike's " Narra- 
gansett church," p. 253-57). 



74 STEPIIKN HOPKINS. 

merchant princes as the Wantons, the Malljones, 
Abraham Rethvood' and \Vhip[)le ;2 of such accom- 
plished historical scholars as Dr. i^tiles-^ and John Cal- 
lender,-! and of scientific men like Joseph and Peter 
Harrison,'' and Dr. William Hunter. 6 It was the 
period when such families as those of Wanton, Bren- 
ton and Vernon, Bull, Coddington, Brinley and Rob- 
inson furnished the cultivated society" for which 
the town became eminent ; and when tiie distin- 

1 Si'e Hunter's "Address liefbre the Reihvood Litirary," lS4r. In Newport 
Historical Magazine. II. 8S-8il. 

2 Whipple was Hopkins's second cousin. He married Redwood's daughter. 

3 Dr. Stiles's voluminous collections remain unpublished. There is a selec- 
tion from different portions of them (in manuscript) in the possession of the 
Rhode Island Hi'<torical Society. (Foster Pajiers, IX. 45). It comiu'iscs more 
than 40 pages. There is a reference to Ciovernor Hopkins in a letter to Dr. 
Stiles, in 1772. (Kingsley's " Ezra Stiles," p 10). 

4 His " Historical discourse," reviewing the century, 1(1.38-17.38, comprises 
the 4th volume of the " < ollections of the Rhode Island Historical Society." 

The latter was flie architect of the Redwood Library, and had been, in 
England, an associate architect in the erection of Blenheim House. (King's 
" Historical Sketch," p. 4). Both of them served on various committees in 
behalf of the colony where accuracy of measurement was requisite, (in some 
instances in association with Stephen Hopkins). (H. I. Col. Records, V. 131, 
189, .325,333, 512; VI. 13). 

6 See Dr. C. W. Parsons's sketch of " Early votaries of physical science in 
Rhode Island." (To be printed in R. I. Hist. Soc. Collections, volume VII). 

7 Newport Hisforical Mngmitie, II. 145-46. 



entrancp: on PuiiLic life. 75 

guishcd literary clul)i whu-h was fouiuled by Berkeley, 
and "which lunnbered aunnig its members such men 
as Cal lender, Ellery,^ Ward. 3 Flonyman, Checkley, 
Updike, 4 and Johnston," was a most potent influence 
in fixing upon the society of Newport that character 
for refined and dignified culture which it has since 
borne. "A similar auspicious influence," says Dr. 
Kino',^ "on the character, intelligence and public 
spirit of the town, on her rising statesmen, her lib- 

1 Neivport nistoriail Magazine, II. 87. Stephen Ilopkius was himself a 
member of this '■ literary club," and was therefore brought into exceptional 
intimacy with these men. He was the only Providence man in the club. 
See the list of its members printed in the "Catalogue of the Redwood 
Library," 1800, p. 3. It is named as the " Philosophical Society." 

2 Afterwards Hopkins's colleague at Pliiladelphia. 

3 Father of Samuel Ward, Hopkins's coll«ague at PhiLadelphia. 

i Col. Updike was a colleague of Governor Hopkins at the Albany congress 
of 1755, which, unlike that of the previous year, confined Itself strictly to 
Indian affairs. (R. I. Col. Records, V. 404;. A piece of silver ware presented 
to him by Berkeley, with whom he was very intimate, on the Dean's departure 
from Newport, still remains in the Updike family. (Updike's " Memoirs of 
the Rhode Island bar," p. 03. 

5 King's " Historical sketch," p. 5. Among other noteworthy facts, he 
mentions that the existence of this library at Newport, "attracted many of 
our literary men in the English colonies who availed themselves of its treasures, 
while enjoying the delights of our climate. From the Carolinas, from the 
West Indies, from New York and Boston, they came here as to a paradise on 
earth to replenish their stock of health and their stores of knowledge." (King's 
"Historical sketch," p. 5). 



76 STEPHEN HOPKINS. 

eral merchants, her cultured schohirs, and her able 
law3'ers, nuist be attributed to the Redwood Li- 
brary. "^ 

While thus drawn more and more into public life, 
his home life was going- on in its own way. His farm 
was becomii>g more valuable by increased cultivation 
as well as by increase in acres ;2 he was introducing 
improved means of communication-'' between it and 
" The Neck ;" he had by 1740 become the father of 
seven children ;'' liis uncle (and comparatively near^ 
neighbor,) Joseph Wilkinson, who had built, per- 
haps in the year before his own marriage,*' "one of 
the tineyt houses in Scituate,"' had added four more 
to his already lar'^fo family of children,'' and acquired 

1 Sti'lilifii lloiikiiis liiiii^-clf no ddiilit iiiailc frtMiUfiit ;iiiil extc'iulcd use ol' tlif 
Redwood Libriii-y. (See .Miison's "Newport illustnited," p. 5'^). 

2 See pages (il-Ov!. 

3 See his ;ictioii with i-es;ird to the rhiinfielil road, page Ofi. Also compare 
R. I. Col. Records, IV. 4'.)->. .')IL>. 

4 Hopkins genealogy, ]). 1)^. In his own family record, (Foster Papers, VI. 
12), one, (Rufiis), is to have been horn " in Cranston," and four " at .Scituate," 
and in the remaining two in.stances tlie place is not mentioned. 

.*) Within a lew miles. 

6 " Erected in ir~'.5 or thereabouts." (Wilkinson Memoirs, p. 318). 

7 " The first one finished off in panel work," Wilkinson adds; and he states 
that It stood 120 years. (Wilkinson Memoirs, p. •''.48). 

5 He had fifteen in all. (ATilkiiuon Memoirs, p. 114). 



ENTRANCE ON PUBLIC LIFE. 77 

about a thousand acres of laud ;• and his remoter 
cousins, the Hopkins's, (the descendants of iiis grand- 
father's brother Thomas,) had settled in large num- 
bers near his own home in Scituate.2 But by 1740 
he appears to have become the only member (jf his 
own immediate family remaining there. His brother, 
Colonel William Hopkins, had removed to the Mash- 
apaug homestead soon alter 1723.^ His brothers, 
Rufus, John, and Samuel, ai)[)ear to have been at 
sea,"* during mo«t of the time, and one of them ^ 
was probably dead in 1741. His sister Hope had 
married in 173(5 Henr>' Harris,'' and removed nearer" 
the Neck settlement. His sister Abigail had mar- 
ried^ Nathan Angell,!* who was one of the earliest 
tradesmen'" in the Town Street, near Angell Street. 

1 Wilkinson Memoirs, p. 348. 2 Hopkins genealogy, p. 15-lfi. 

3 See pages 01-62. i See page 54. 

5 Rufus. See Hopkin.s genealogy, p. 10. 

6 Hopkins genealogy, p. 20. 

7 Wliat is now Johnston, says Mr. Holbrook, '• had probably been her 
home throughout her married life." (Hojykins genealogy, p. 23). 

8 The exact (lute is not preserved. It was before 1744. (See •' (ienealogy of 
the descendants of Thomas Angell," p. 44). 

i) In the 4th generation from Thomas Angell, the companion of Koger Wil- 
liams. (See Angell genealogy, p. 44). 
10 Angell genealogy, p. 21, 44. 



78 STEPHEN HOPKINS. 

His brother Esek had, soon after 1738,^ left Scituate 
and ''havinn found" at Providence, savs Wilkinson, 2 
"a vessel ready to sail to Surinam, he enlisted as 
a 'raw hand,' having disposed of his gun for a Span- 
ish four-pence." "His practical knowledge of nav- 
igation," the same writer adds, 3 was what gave 
him "pre-eminence on the sea," and marrying at 
Newport in 1741,^ the connection of this brother with 
Scituate was severed forever. Death also had re- 
moved from Stephen's companionship his grand- 
father, Samuel Wilkinson, who had apparently died 
in less than a year after his own marriage in 1726, 
(August 27, 1727) ;•' his uncle, Joseph Wilkinson, 
who died in 1740; his mother at some time previous 
to March, 1731 f and his father in 1738.^ He was 
indeed left alone, in the neighborhood.® This, how- 

1 On the death of his father. 

2 Wilkinson Memoirs, p. 381. .3 Ibid., p. .S82. i Ibid., p. ,383, 

5 Ibid., p. 51. 

6 A quit-claim deed from Colonel William Hopkins to his uncle, Joseph 
Wilkinson, dated Feb. 23, 1730-1, speaks of his "deceased mother, Kuth Hop- 
kins." (Printed in the Wilkinson Memoirs, p. 354). 

7 Hopkins genealogy, p. 11. 

8 His kinsmen were now chiefly in Newport and Providence. At Newport, 
Joseph Whipple. Jr., deputy-governor in the next year, and his brother. Cap- 



ENTRANCE ON PUBLIC LIFE. 79 

ever, may not be the only reason for his removal to 
Providence in 1742. He had, it is true, been apply- 
ing himself to farming^ with that energy which inva- 
riably characterized him ; but the conviction appears 
to have been gradually forcing itself upon him, that 
commercial enterprises offered a Held for his best 
eff'orts. His relations with Crawford and Angel! in 
Providence,"^ and with Malbone,^' Redwood, •• and 
Whipple^ in Newport, engaged as they were in the 

tain Esek Hopkins, with his fumily. At l'io\ ideiuv, his latht^r's cousin, Col. 
Joseph Whipple, one of the founders of King's Church, in 1722, and his 
brother-in-law, Niithan Angell, both of them extensively engaged in trade. 
Several of Col. Whipple's fiiuiily also had married into the Fenner and Craw- 
ford families ; one marrying Captain John Crawford, and another William 
Crawf<n-d, >' whose inventory " in 1720, says JUr. Dorr, " was tlie largest that 
had yet been exhibited to the court of probate." (Dorr's " Providence," p. 
16~) . His wife's kinsmen also were liere ; the ex-governor, Joseph Jencks, (of 
what is now Pawtucket), her uncle, and the families of the four brotliers. 
Brown, connected by several intermarriages with the families of Scott and 
Jenckes. With all tliese Stephen Hopkins's relations were close and intimate 
from this time forward. 

1 A bit of light is thrown on his success by the record of payment of boun- 
ties offered by tlie General Assembly for the heaviest crops of tlax. From 
these it appears that in 17:!3, Stephen Hopkins raised 9-151/4 lbs. of flax, and 
manufactured 104 lbs. of hemp. (Potter's " Bills of credit," p. 78). 

2 See Chapter V. ^ See page 54. 

4 Abrnliam Hedwood was the father-in-law of Joseph Whipple, Jr. 

5 His second cousin, Joseph Wliipple. Jr., of Newport. Whipple was 



80 STEPHEN HOPKINS. 

flourishing commerce of that time, may have drawn 

him to the idea, and the strikingly successful nauti- 
caP experiences of his brothers undoubtedly empha- 
sized the tendency. Perhaps, however, the direct 
occasion for his decision was his appointment as 
clerk of the Court of Common Pleas of Providence 
County in 1741, ^ preceded by his election as speaker 
of the General Assembly in the same year."^ To 
do full justice to the now duties thus imposed upon 
him, it seemed essential that he should be settled 
in some more accessible locality than Scituate. The 
Chapumiscook farm was accoi-dingly offered for sale ;'» 



apparently in the direct line for the governorship, and doubtless would have 
reached this honor earlier than Hoplvins, in 1755, except for his unfortunate 
but honorable business failure. (Arnold's " Rhode Island," II. 186). 

1 Their father, William Hoplcins, in penetrating the forest about 1708, and 
establishing his home a dozen miles from the sea coast, perhaps flattered him- 
self that he was thus making it certain that his " brood " would turn out farm- 
ers. Instead of that, they "took to the water like ducks." He had not been 
in his grave three years, when the last one of theni appears to have left the 
Scituate hills; and within the next forty years liis descendants were sailing the 
ocean in all directions; twelve of them in command of vessels. 

2 Kecords of Providence County Court of Common Pleas, I. i'S.i. 
'.', R. I. Col. Records, V. 10. 

4 " He sold his farm in Scituate in 1742." (Wilkinson Memoirs, p. 306). It 
was perhaps not entirely disposed of until 1744, in which year part of his 



ENTRANCK OX PUliLlC LIFE. 81 

ail estate was purchased' in Providence, on the Town 
Street ;2 and thereupon beg-aii that complete identi- 
fication of himself with the interests of this town, 
which caused him to be leofarded, almost from the 
very first, as her leading citizen. 

homestead was bought by John Hulet. (lieanian's " Scituate," p. 23). Ou 
this estate the next owner, Lieutenant Governor AVilliam West, built, " in 
1775," " the largest and most showy house that had ever been erected in Scitu- 
ate." (Beaman's "Scituate," p. 25). 

1 April 15, 1742. (Moses Brown's letter to Robert Wain, 1823). 

2 The present corner of South Main and Hopkins Streets. 



CHAPTER V. 



A CITIZEN OF PROVIDENCE. 



In the preceding chapter^ allusion is made to the 
immediate recognition of Stephen Hopkins as a lead- 
ing citizen of Providence, by his contemporaries. 
We may go farther than that, at this remove in order 
of time, and pronounce him the most distinguished 
citizen to whom she has o;iven birth. Ko"^er Williams 
first saw the light on the other side (jf the Atlantic, 
Nathauael Greene, whose name is held in deepest 
honor throuiihout the state, was l)orn in Warwick, 
and was never a resident of l^rovidence. The great 
names of lierkeley and Channing have insei)arable 
associations with Newport, but have none with Prov- 
idence. But Stephen Il(j[)kins was born on her 
soil, was thoroughly identified with her interests, 

1 See page 81. 



A CITIZRN OF PROVIDENCE. 83 

and Nv;is one of her most assiduous public servants, 
to whose exertions she is most deepl\- indebted. The 
state of Rhode Ishmd has creeled a substantial monu- 
ment^ over his remains in the now almost historic 
cemetery'-^ which contains them. It would be a fitting 
act for the city of Providence to perpetuate his niem- 
orv by a suitable memorial at the spot which marks 
his biithplace. 

One characteristic of Governor Hopkins stands out 
with great distinctness, in connection with his ten- 
dencies to expansion, already noted, 3 which led him 
constantly to widen the sphere of his duties, and 
broaden the scale of his operations. It is, that in 
passing to new surroundings, he did not abandon the 
old. lie was able in almost every instance to retain 
his hold on what he had once secured, and this goes 
far to explain the success of his career. It throws 
especial light on his very noteworthy success as a 
leader of pul)lic o[)iiiion.^ Thus in removing from 
the country to Providence, he did not lose his hold 

1 For tlie iiisciiiition ciiived upon its tablots, see Appendix. 

2 The Nortli Burying Ground. 3 See pages 52-53. 
4 See Chapters VI. and VIII . 



84 STEPHEN HOPKINS. 

on "the country elemcul." On the contrary, that 
element ap[)ears as a not(!\vorthy feature in his fol- 
lowing-, throuo^h the whole of his career, up to its 
very close. Nor in exchanging the duties of a cit- 
izen of Providence for those of governor of the col- 
ony, did he abandon his direct and intimate interest 
in tlie development of Providence. And once more, 
in i)assing from the sphere of his colonial duties in 
the smallest of the original thirteen, to a position of 
inHueuce in the councils of the United Colonies, he 
still carrie(] with him an unremitting and devoted 
attachment to Uhode Island interests. 

Yet the student of his career cannot fail to remark 
the peculiar sense in which he may almost be said to 
have identitied himself with Providence. Although 
from the period of his first governorship his interest 
in all parts of Rhode Island was intelligent and con- 
stant, and while his candidacy always had strong 
and earnest supportei-s in other parts of the colony, 
yet there is no doubt that he took a ])eculiar and al- 
most alfectionate interest in the development of Prov- 
idence. It is somewhat significant that one of the 
most appreciative statements of this fact is found in 



A CITIZEN OF PROVIDENCE. 85 

an address before the Redwood Library in 1847, by a 
distinguished native of Newport, the late William 
Hunter. "Stephen Hopkins," says Mr. Hunter, 
"tauo-ht Providence her capabilities, and calculated, 
rather than prophesied her future growth and pros- 
perity."! This is striking language, but no one who 
has studied the period in question will fail to recog- 
nize its truth and fitness. It is' true that natural 
conditions were powerful aids in the same direction. 
It is true that the existence of the magnificent inland 
sea, at the head of which the town had grown up, 
made it impossible that, sooner or later, the 
commercial instinct and the habit of sailing with 
cargoes, should not become almost second nature to 
its enterprising and adventurous citizens. ^ The won- 
der is that she was so late in moving. Newport had 

1 Neioport Historical Magazine, II. H2. 

2 Tristam Burges, in ISIiG, wrote as follows to Moses Brown : " The people 
of this state must have been much engaged on the sea, before ir7:i; or ycur 
brotlier John [John Brown] could not at that time have collected fifty young 
men at Providence in one evening, to embark with him in the destruction of 
the Gaspee." (Manuscript letter in possession of the Rhode Island Historical 
Society, Jan. Vi, 18.36). 



8 



86 STEPHEN HOPKINS. 

many years the start of Providence, as a port in 
whose waters the trade of distant nations found a 
harbor. 1 But Providence, to quote once more from 
Mr. Hunter, was "now beginning to appreciate * * * 
the safety and superiority of its position at the head 
of navigation. "2 And by 17(37, to quote from the 
report of a committee made to the town in a subse- 
quent year : 

" The town of Provkleuce was in its most flonrishing circum- 
stances. Its trade was open to almost all parts of the world, its 
navigation extensive and prosperous, its stores and warehouses 
crowded with all sorts of merchandize, its streets thronged willi 
foreigners who came liither to advance their fortunes by trade 
and commerce." ^ 

When Stephen Hoplvins became a citizen of Prov- 

1 So early as Dec. 5, 170s, Gov. Samuel Cranston wrote to tlie Board ol 
Trade, in answer to a series of in(|uirii-s : "About twenty years \r.i-t, we had not 
above four or five vessels that di<l belong to this colony, which hatli since trrud- 
ually increased to the number of twenty-nine," all but '-two or tlnee" dfuliich 
belonged to Xewjiort. He goes on to attribute the rea-on oftliis increase "to 
the inclination the youth" on that island, " have to the sea." (U. I. Col. 
Records, IV. 58). Moses Brown mentions a bill of lading, dated in lOiio, of a 
cargo of "the good ship, called \.\\eEliznheth4'Mary" consigned to Caleb 
Cranston, Ijro'.lier of the governor, (f.etter of Jan. I-,', 1830). 

2 NciL-port Historical Magazine, II. 141. 

,3 Stajiles's "Annals," j). 'Z^'Z. .Jolni Brown was chairman, and David 
Howell was probably writer of llii/ rejjort. 



A CITIZEN OF rROVIDENCE. 87 

iclencc, in 1742, he found it an inconsidcniblc settle- 
ment^ of less tiian 4,000 inlmbitants.-i It had no cus- 
tom-house ;=^ no post-office ;-^ no town-house <> no 
school-houses ;*' no college ;" no libraiy ;« no public 
market-house,'-^ no "state-house," (Newport being 
the "Metropolis" of the colony;) no bank nor insur- 
ance office ;i^ no printing-press and no newspaper ;i' 

1 For scviTul ytars after this, the colony tax assessed upon Providence was 
less not only than tliat oCNewport, but than that of the liirniing town of South 
Kingstown. (Staples's "Annals," p. 200). 

2 Six years later it was 3,45u'. (Douglass's " Summary," II. 89). Compare 
also R. I. I'ublio Documents, 187'.i, No. (>, p. ~'9. 

3 " We never had in this town," says Closes Brown, " a custom-house office 
until after the revolution ;" or rather after the ratification of the L'nited States 
constitution by Khodc Island, in 17'M. (Letter to T. Durges, .Ian. 1~', im'<). 

4 This was not established until about 1758. (Dorr's " Frovidence," p. l'.t'.»; 
Staples'.s "Annals," p. (ill). 

a The town was, however, allowed to hold town-meetings in the county- 
house, erected 172<)-:il. (Slaples's "Annals," p. lOl-'.)-'). 

(i No mention of a "town school-house" appears on the town records until 
ir.'jL'. (Staples's " Annals," p. 105.) 

7 L'niversity Hall was built, 1770. 

8 Tlie Providence Library was founded at least as early as 1751. (U. I. Col. 
Records, V. 378-70). 

None was erected until 1773. (Stai)U's's " Annals," p. '..'Ol-^). 

10 The lirst bank was in 1701 ; the first insurance office in 1700. 

11 William ( ioddard set up his printing-press in 170:;, when he began tlu' issue 
oiUw Providence Gu::eUc. Thomas's "History of printing in America," II. 
S3. (Am. Antinu. Soc. ed.). 



88 STErHEN HOPKINS. 

but four liuildings for religious worship ;' no paved 
street ;'~one mill ; three taverns ; a draw in the bridge 
at Weybosset ; a ship-yard just above it,^ on the 
west side ; a row of wharves just above it on the 
east side ; a little back from these, the Town Sti'eet 
with its pretty continuous line of dwellings and 
shops, from Weybosset T3ridge to the northern slope 
of Stampers Hill ; south of the bridge, dwellings and 
shops, but much fewer: and beyond the crest of the 
hill back of the Town Street, wide expanses of fields 
unbroken by any dwellings except at very rare in- 
tervals ;■* on the West Side and on Smith's Hill a 
still wilder and less tenanted territory.^ 

1 The old I'upli^t iiiet'ting-Iionsc, near tlic corner of Siiiitli Street, King's 
Cliurch at the coi-ner of Church Street, the Friends' nieetingdiouse, at JMecfing 
Street, and tlie Congregational nieeting-liousc, on the site of the present Court- 
liciise. 

2 There was no i)a\ ing until 17()1. (U. T. Col. Records, VI. :.'(>i.), L'S(i-S7). 

3 That of Nathaniel I'.rown, estahlishe<l about 1711. (Dorr's " Providence," 
p. 117-lS). 

4 lienelit Street was not fully laid out until 17.jS. (Dorr's " I'rovidence," p. 
15u'). 

No painting or drawing has preserved for us the aspect of this early town. 
There is, however, a brief, concise and graphic pen-photograiih of it in two 
lines of a printed broadside of this date, preserved in tlie cabinet of the Rhode 
Island Historical Society : (Foster Papers, ATI. 2). 



A CITIZEN OF rUOVIDENCE. 89 

ytcphcn Hopkins, in milking his home in Provi- 
dence, had no thonghtof returning to the Mashapaug 
homestead,! ^yhich had furnished him a birthphice. 
He had left the idea of an agricultural life for behind 
him, and was now ready to bend all his energies to 
developing a successful commercial business, and he 
made his choice of a home with reference to this 
point. The Town Street below Weybosset Bridge, 
as we have just indicated, 2 was at this time much 
more sparsely settled than above the bridge. Nev- 
ertheless, it was here, on what became the corner 
of a street or lane^ which now perpetuates his name, 

" This pleasant town does border on the flood, 
Here's ucighboring orchards, & more back tlie wood." 
The broadside is entitled "A journal of a survey of Narragausett Bay, made 
in Jlay and June, mi, by order of royal commissioners, by one of the survey- 
ors. [W. C.]." (William Cluaidler, of Connecticut). 

1 The Hoplvins farm was situated two mUes southwest of Weybosset 
Bridge, on the West Side. (See Appendix D) . 

2 See page 88. 

3 Nearly fifty years later, in 17'.)1, probably, the way which leaves the Town 
Street at the site of his house, received the name of Bank Lane, (Dorr's "Prov- 
idence,"p. 22S),ontIie establishment at the opposite corner of the earliest 
bank incorporated in Khode Island, the second in New England. It ^^ not 
unlikely that there was no lane when Stephen Hopkins built his house; for " a 
new way " was ordered here June 11, 1752. See Blue Book, Streets revised, 
1771, (Town Kecords). Yet there may have been a foot-patli. The building, 



90 STEPHEN HOPKINS. 

that he proceeded to l)uild his house. ^ He was too 
far-sighted not to see that it was only a question of 
time when the draw in the bridge must be aban- 
doned, 2 when ships could no longer pass through to 
the wharves of the upper Town Street,^ and when 

by the wny, is still stmuling, liaving been, iu 1808, (sec Dorr's " Providence," 
p. l(i:!), moved up the liill in tlie rear, (tlie present No. !), Hopkins Street) ; and 
it is a fact of significant interest that tlie spot which was for more than forty 
years, the home of the fatlier of the commercial prosperity of Providence, has, 
since l80s, been the site of the office of tlie most eminent lirm in the commer- 
cial history of Rhode Island,— Brown & Ives. 

In 1805, by order of the town council, the former Bank Lane was made Hop- 
kins Street, and this name it still most appropriately bears. 

1 He " Ijuilt," says Moses Brown, " the house he lived and died in. in Provi- 
dence." (Letter to Robert Wain, 182:{). 

" The entrance," says Mr. Beaman, "was by a flight of steps on Hopkins 
Street that opened into a good sized entry in which was a lire place, and a large 
arm cliair, leather bottom and leather back." "Tlie garden back of the house 
* * * ran up to the bounds of the present location of the house." ( Providence 
Journal, ^lay 1'.), isrio). 

'Z The draw was for the last time rebuilt in 17'.''^, but its removal had been 
a (piestion very warmly discussed for many years previous. (Dorr's " Provi- 
dence," p. 22i; also p. '..'■-•:!). 

3 About the middle of the century, " the lower part of the cove " was "the 
scene of the greatest commercial activity. On its cast .side was water deep 
enough for brigs and banjues, making voyages to London and Dublin." Car- 
goes were unloaded " at the wareliouses which were behind the residences or 
offices of their owners, on the Town Street. At the corner ol a long dock or 
slip of considerable depth and capacity, now tilled up and called Steeple Street, 
was the office of Clark & Nightingale." The house of M'illiam Russell was 
near the foot of Meeting Street. (Dorr's " Providence," p. 198, lO'J) . 



A CITIZEN OF TROVIDENCE. 91 

the scene of commercial activity would be from the 
bridge at Market Square,' to Fox Point. He lived 
to witness the most of these changes. 

THE COMMERCIAL DEVELOPMENT OF PROVIDENCE. 

Having forecast, in his own mind, the commercial 
future which this town had before it, and accurately 
divined the channels through which it was to come, 

1 " Commerce," says Mr. Dorr, " aided the movement of the town towards 
a new and more convenient centre. When we first gain a clear view of it 
from the columns of the Gazette, [1702], the advance had already begun." 
(Dorr's "Providence," p. 198). By 1768 the post-oflice had been removed to 
what is now Market Square and vigorous cflbrts were put forth to improve the 
square and remove certain obstructions. The market-liouse, combining as in 
more than one instance in Old and New England, the functions of a commer- 
cial exchange and a building for municipal otiices, was not erected until 1773. 
Of the arches under the civic building of Udine, on the Adriatic, Jlr. lidward 
A. Freeman remarks : " The pillared space forms the market-place of the city." 
And he goes on to add that, as in .Southern Europe, so in Great Britain, 
" Many a English market-town has an open market-house with arches, with a 
room above for the administration of justice." (Freeman's "Sketches from 
the subject and neighbour lands of Venice," p. 31, 32). (Compare also The 
Nation, XXXIV. 130). Providence is not the only American town, moreover, 
where this interesting combination of an arched markit-placo with a building 
for municipal purposes has existed. Not to speak of Faneuil Hall, in 
Boston, the ancient municipal buildings of Salem, Newport, and other New 
England towns furnish similar instances. The present City Hall of Provi- 
dence replaced the Market-house in 1878. 



92 STEPHEN HOPKINS. 

Steplicn Hopkins proceeded to do what lay in his 
own power to bring in the new order of" things. 
Mention is elsewhere made of the public spirited 
citizen, Nathaniel Brown, i who had conic to Provi- 
dence about 1711, from Massachusetts, and was en- 
gaged in ship-bnilding, on Weybosset Neck,- for 
nearly twenty years. 

" Ilis ves.sols," says Air. Dorr, "were among the first wliicli 
sailed from rrovidence for the West Indies and the Spaiiisli 
Main."^ "The rirst vessels, sucli as Nathaniel Brown Ijnilt, 
(1711-1730,) were sloops and seliooners, the largest of some 
sixty tons burden. These earried the earliest colonial exports,'' 
horses, timber, ])arrel-staves, and hoop-poles, to the West Indies 
and the Spanish filain."* 

The lack of custom-house records is a serious o]> 
stacle to the comprehensive tracing of the beginning 

1 Seethe " Ui.storicrtl discourse" on the 150th anniversary of St. John's 
Ijarisli, J). 4s. 

2 Tlie town f,M-anted liim "one-Iialf acre on Waybosset Neck, on salt water." 
(Uorr's " Providence," \). 117). 

3 Dorr's " Providence," p. lis. 

4 Mr. Dorr says: (" Providence," p. 137) " I'pon tlie fislieries wliich were 
sources of tlie earliest vvealtli of Mussacliusetts, tlie Plantations did not ven- 
ture." They certainly did not to a large extent, but si'vcral allusions to fisher. 
ies will be found in tlie letter of Moses Brown. 

5 Dorr's " Providence," p. 13(;-37. 



A CITIZEN OF PROVIDENCE. 93 

and growth of the commerce of this seaport. Prov- 
idence, in fact, never attained the distinction of 
being a port of entry, ^ until brought under the juris- 
diction of the United States government, in 1790.- 
Until then the Newport collector and the Newport 
custom-house, were made to serve the purpose of 
the whole of Rhode Island. "During the first half 
of the last century, therefore," says Mr. Dorr, such 
enterprise is only to l)e traced " in the lengthening 
rolls of tax-payers, in the ampler probate invento- 



1 There seems, however, to Imve been a local officer, called a "naval offi- 
cer," so early as 16S0, or 1082. (Letter of Moses Brown, Jan. V2, Ki.'iO). Au 
ordinance of the General Assembly in 1G82, ordered " that there sliall be in the 
towne of Newport (,nnd elsewhere the Governor of tliis collouy shall judge meet) 
* * a navall office." (K. I. Col. Records, III. 110. See also IV. 23G, 4.39; V. 
71,74). This officer was appointed, however, not by the home government, 
but by the colony. Moses Brown, in the letter just cited, mentions Jeremiah 
Olney and Ebenezer Thompson as having held this position. An officer 
appointed by " the commissioner of His Majesty's revenue," in Boston was 
known as " the surveyor of the King's customs." Though living at Provi- 
dence, he reported at Newport. " Each new vacancy," says Mr. Uorr. "called 
forth angry complaints, that none but a Massachusetts man was ever deemed 
worthy of tliis royal favour." (Dorr's " Providence," p. 218). Comi)are also 
a " Searcher's notice," in the Providence Gazette, Nov. 20, 17<>3. 

2 President Washington, in 1790, appointed Jeremiah Olney collector of 
the port of Providence, and Theodore Foster naval officer. (Stone's " John 
Howland,"p. 160). 



94 STKPIIKN HOPKINS. 

rics/' and .similar iiistruiuciits, "preserved in the 
pn])lic nrchivcs/'' 

Fortunately, h(nvovcr, the extensive ))usincss of 
one of the most entei-prising families- of this period 
has secured a record, l)ri(?f and incomj)lete, to l)e 
sure, but very welcome in the absence of ihe olh'cial 
custom-house records. Moses Brown, in a letter 
written in iy3(],^ carefully copied a list of "84 ves- 
sels before the year '60" ■^ "named [as he said] in our 
books," and these eighty-four may be taken as ap- 
proximating very closely to the total then owned here. 
To this family of " four brothers," ■" every one of them 



1 Dorr's " rrovidcnce," p. 137. 

2 The Brown family. 

;} Tlii-; letter has tdreaily boon cited several time.- in these pages. Sec pages 
85, 8(5, S7. It was written .Fiin. \2, ISlJCi, in answer to a letter of Uon. Tristani 
IJurges, who liad been invited to deliver an address before the Khode Island 
Historical Society, on the early coniinerce of Providence ; and who turned most 
naturally to his A-enerable friend, then '.»7 years of age, for trustworthy infor- 
mation on that point. Mr. i'.urges's letter contained eight sejiarate (picries, to 
winch Hoses IJrown replied in a letter of nearly thirteen foolscap pages of 
mauiiMcript. At the end of his letter iic adds the list of vessels above 
alhuled to. Both Mr. Bnrges's letter, and Moses Brown's answer, copied by 
himself, are in the possession of Ihe Rhode Island Historical Society. 

1 1700. .5 Nicliolas, .Joseph, .Tohn, and Closes. 



A CITIZEN OF PROVIDENCE. 95 

en<nio-ecl in mercantile pursuits, i as their ftither^ and 
uncle=' had been before them, the town is not a little 
indebted for a decided impetus in the commercial 
advances now going forward. In them Stephen 
Hopkins found from the very outset the most intel- 
ligent of coadjutors, in developing his far-reaching 
plans. With Nicholas, the eldest, the father of the 
chief benefactor of Brown University, his intercourse 
was close and constant, in service on committees for 
patriotic purposes,"* in business enterprises, ^ and in 
family relationship, their wives being cousins. e With 

1 The tirni of Brown & Ives, still in existence, may be traced back through 
successive changes, to the mercantile partnerships lormed by these brothers. 

2 James P.rown, the great-grandson of Chad Brown, Uoger Williams's con. 
t<.™porary and associate, and son of llev. James Brown, was born in Provi- 
dence in 1CU8. " He engaged in active business, and became.a successful mer- 
cliant of Providence, thus laying the foundations of the wealth and prosperity 
of his descendants." (Guild's " J.ames Manning," p. 155). 

.-5 Obadiah Brown was a younger brother of James, first mentioned. He 

had died three years before Stephen Hopkins removed to Providence. He 
became one of the largest ship owners of these earlier years. 

4 For instance on the committee of correspondence, appointed in 17M. (R. 

I. Col. Itecords, VI. 40.3). 

5 In the m.anagement of Furnace Hope. (See Arnold's " Rhode Island." 

11.201). 

Sarah Scott, Governor Hopkins's wife, and lllioda Jenckes, the wife of 
Nicholas Brown, were descendants of Itichard Scott, and the same time, of 
Joseph Jencks, the second of tlie name. 



96 STEPHEN HOPKINS. 

Joseph he was connected in various literary and 
scientific projects ; and he was associated with him in 
the observation of the transit of Venns, in 17G9.i 
With the energetic and patriotic John Brown,- whose 
name, as has been pointed ont 1)y another writer, 
receives more " frequent mention " than any other, 
in the records of the colony from 1776 to 1779, ''in 
connection with important committees and various 
public services,"^ he was in unbroken and intimate 
connection. With Moses, the youngest, how- 
ever, the intimacy was perhaps greater than in 
either of the other three instances. They were both 
Friends. They were both deeply interested in 
mathematical stndies. They were both unusnally 
devoted to promoting public education in Provi- 
dence^ They were both assiduous readers and 



1 See Benjamin West's pamphlet, "An account of the observation of Venus 
upon the sun," Providence, 1701). 

2 Also connected by marriage with Governor Uopkins, to whose second 
wife, Anne Smith, his own wife, Sarah Smith, was neice. 

3 (iuild's " .lames Manning," p. 107. 

4 See Staples's "Annals," p. 490-500. Sanderson's "Biography of the 
signers to the declaration of Independence," VI. 251. Guild's " James Man- 
ning," p. 174. 



A CITIZKN OF PKOVIDENCE. 97 

students,' perluips umong the most widely rend citi- 
zens of the town. Moses Brown, in fact, retiring 
eiirly- from active business, with un ample fortune, 
found abundent leisure for what Governor Hopkins 
was obliged to dismiss to some spare hours snatched 
from much-needed rest. This abundant leisure, 
moreover, he frequently devoted with self-sacrificing 
tj-encrosity, to his friend, Governor Hopkins; acting 
"on various occasions" "as his amanuensis, on com- 
mittees of the assembly, in the correspondence of 
the committee of safety, as well as in matters of 
business." "* 

Moses BroAvn's commercial review of nearly 
twenty-five years shows the pre-eminence of his own 
family throughout the whole period.'' So early as 
1736, he says, "I find by my ancestors'*' books, they 

1 SaiKlcrsou's " 15iogr:ii)liy ol" tlio .sif?iit'rs," VI. 248. 

2 Guild's " .lames Maniiiiijj," p. 173. 

3 In his public life, .<ays Beamau. lio lillftl up " all the spare hours of his 
life with reading." (IJeaman's " Scituate," p. L'l). 

4 Sanderson's " IJiography of the signers," VI. 2-45-l(). 

5 " From 17;tO to 1748," he says, " I find tifteen," owned by " the Drowns," 
" and from 1748 to 1700 about sixty vessels." 

6 DoubUess James and Obadiah Urown. 1 he latter owned the sloop Dol- 
phin, so early as 1733. 

9 



iJ8 STEPHEN HOPKIxXS. 

owned," (or were principally concerned in) " four 
sloops that used the West India trade." Of one of 
these, his father-in-law, (and kinsman),^ Ohadiah 
Brcnvn, was captain and owner in pait. Of these 
vessels the majority were doubtless among those 
built by Nathaniel Brown before 1730,- but it is 
probable that that builder had now been succeeded 
by Roger KinnicutJ* Later he cites the sale of a 
l)rigantine in 174(S, which was owned in shares, by 
as many as ten owners, to show the prevalence of 
this custom at first ;"* which was gradually abandoned 
as the scale of ojierations broadened. The years 
from 1780 to 17.5(i were mainly years of peaceful^ 
ti-ade and navigation. On the breaking out of the 

1 Moses 15i-u\vn niarrinl Cor his first wife the (liiiij,'litt'r ol' Obiuliah IJrowii, 
the brotlRT of his CatlitT. 

•^ Dorr's " I'rovidenee,"' p. l-iCi. iVathaiiifl liiowirs family was a I'lvnioutli 
family, and hail no coiiiieclion whatever with that of James Brown, at Provi- 
dence. (Dorr's " I'lovidencc,"' p. lir; Savage's " (ieuealogical dictionary," 
I. 2()l)-70; xV. K. Historical and Genealogioil Register. \\\\\. IKis-ri). 

3 Dorr's " I'rovidence," p. lis. Col. Edward Kinnicut, his brother, was 
engaged in commerce in Providence, a few years later. 

■i Stephen Hopkins was liimself at first engaged in many such partnerships 
on shares. See Sanderson's " Biograpliy of the signers," VI. 2-i>S-4'.). 

5 The exception was the shoi-l " War of the .\nstrian succession," (King 
George's war), 1744-48. 



A CITIZEN OF rilOVIDENCE. 99 

"Seven years' war," in 1756,' Moses Brown tells us, 
some of the citizens tleterininetl to secure [)rizes of 
war. "In live ino[iiths], four days,^ from the 
declaration to lit out, man, and capture the prize," a 
valuable Spanish vessel re-named the Desire,^ was 
brought in triumph to the wharves of Providence. 
The name of the daring captor was Esek Hopkiiis. 

Easily second in fact to the Brown family in com- 
mercial pre-eminence, was the Hopkins family, now 
rising to distinction. In Moses Brown's list of 
Providence vessels,^ seventeen are either owned or 
commanded by various members of the Hopkins 
family,^' and in still other instances Stephen Hop- 

1 Tills war, (17J0-0;!), was sometinifs known in this country as " I'ho old 
French war." 

■Z Tlie 30tli of January, 1757. 

:j The fact tliat Desire was the name of Captain Uopkins's wife, and later 
of his daughter, tln-ows some light on the re-naming of tliis vessel. (Hopkins 
"genealogy," p. 2i, 27). 

4 Of these seventy-nine vessels, two are ships, three schooners, twelve 
snows, nineteen brigs or brigantines, and forty one sloops; two are unde- 
scribed. They are elsewhere referred to as "eighty-four," (see p. W), but 
in several instances the same vessel is mentioned twice. 

5 Besides "Stephen Hopkins & Co.," (so early as 174ri). Esek Hopkins's 
name occurs as master of a vessel four times, and their nephew Christopher's 



100 STEl'IIEN IIOrKINS. 

kins's interest may be traced. But it was not simply 
as owner and manager of vessels, that Stephen Hop- 
kins was now engaged in imparting an impetus to 
the commercial development of the town. His com- 
prehensive intellect was taking in not merely the 
details of tonnage, the measuremeiit of sloops and 
hrigantines,' the storage of molasses and sugar; but 
was rancinii" the seas Ibr new markets, was calcula- 
ting the eliect of new or proposed duties to be laid 
by the home government, was plannnig the most 
economical and labor-saving routes for the foreign 
trade,- and was watching constantly for new feeders 

twice. Of thf governor's sons, Kufii.s's name ajipears as captain so early as 
174(i; Jolm's so early as 1700; and (ieorge's so early as ITCiO, at the age of 21. 
It is to be remeniberefl also tliat in more tlian a quarter of these instances the 
name ot'the owner, or tlie master, is omitted; and in some of these the proba- 
bility is very strong that Stejihen ni)])kins had an interest. 

1 " Brigantine," In only one instance in Jloses Brown's list, is "brig" 
used instead of this form of the word. The distinction between the two species 
of craft is not always observed. 

2 One of his vessels, about tlie year ir.Tl, loaded in the "Seekonk River" with 
lumber wliich had been lloated down from 3Iassachusetls, sailed to London, 
was sold with her cargo on board, for goods brought home in another vessel, 
" which set up three shops," and ajipiars, according to I\Ioses Brown's state- 
ment, to have been the beginning of the dry goods business of l'ro\ iilence. 
■' Before tliis," he says, "shops of dry goods owned by people in rsewiiort, 



A CITIZKN OF TKOVIDENCE. 101 

to the business of Providence, from the outlying 
country. 1 A commercial town nmst have docks and 
warehouses. " With increasing trade," says Mr. 
Dorr, "deeper warehouses were built, and l)ehind 
them, wharves of timber, beneath which the tide 

l)i-incipally supitlied our cuiiiity." (Li-tter otMoscs Hrowii to T. l;iir;,'i's). U 
was not long before .loseiiU iuid Willi:iiii Kiis^ell, both of thoiii activL-Iy asso- 
ciated with Hoi)kins in public enterprises, began their eniineutly successful 
mercantile career. "On tlio arrival," says Mr. Dorr, -'of a barque or a brigautine 
for .Joseph and William Itussell, their advertisement of her cargo often filled 
an entire pageof the Gazetia." (Dorr's '• I'rovidence," p. l<i'.»). Joseph llussell, 
later in life, became a sort of son-in-law to Governor Uopkins, having married, 
April 28, 1771, his step-daughter, Amey, (daughter of his second wife, Anne 
Smith). (Hopkins genealogy, p. 75). And in the later years, their nephew, 
Charles H. Russell, one of the eminent niercliants of ISew Vork City, and their 
kinsman, Jonathan Russell, the late head of the mercantile liouse of Russell 
& Sturgis, of Atnnila, liave still farther extended the honorable name so early 
acquired. ( Bartletfs " Russell family," p. 23, 28, :i4-:!.0) . 

1 As has just been seen above, the interior of Massachusetts was " tapped" 
for its stores of lumber. But it was now beginning to be tapped for its trade 
no less. " In 174o," says Mr. Dorr, " Providence had through the Blackstone 
valley, much of the trade of central Massachusetts." (Dorr's "I'rovidence," 
p. 172). And again he remarks : "At the close of the Seven years' war, [1763], 
Providence was the centre of a populous region, and possessed mucli of the 
West India trade of the interior of Massachusetts." (Dorr's " Providence," 
p. 207). Nor is it less likely that etforts were made to develop a more active 
trade with the growing settlements of northern Rhode Island. Stephen Hop- 
kins's intimate familiarity with this region would make this an almost neces- 
sary consequence. 



102 STKrHEN lIOrKlNS. 

ebbed and flowed." ' But it w;is easy to see that this 
encroachment would l)efore long leave no navigable 
channel, north of the bridge. The southward move- 
ment in Avhich he interested himself,- found its justi- 
fication when in 1790, his friend, John Brown, 
"built the lirst wharves :ind storehouses in the 
locality now called India Point." ^ Here was a chan- 
nel in wdiose deep waters his ships could lie while 
unloading their cargoes of teas, cotfces, and silks 
Avhich he, first' among Ehode Island merchants, im- 
ported from China and the East Indies. 

1 Dorr's " rrovidciicc," p. 143. 

2 He built, as wc have noticed, liis own liousc in 174'^, considc'ral)Iy soutli 
of what was then tlie centre of business. lUs \\ ill makes mention of " two 
lots of land at Tock(inotton," (see Appendix N), which he perhaps secured at 
the same time for commercial purposes. The Uojikius's and tlie ISrowns, 
however, were not the only men to perceive that the movement of business 
was then in this direction. "Daniel Abbott," says IMr. Dorr, "the chief 
land-holder of his day," " was a man of enlightened forecast. He had laid out 
streets at Tockwotton, by a plat which may be seen in the city clerk's office." 
(Dorr's " Providence," p. 23(1). 

3 Dorr's "Providence," p. ■-.'.'U'l. 

4 His ship, the General Wasliivfjton, Captain Jonathan Donison, 1,000 tons 
burden, sailed triDu J'rovidence in December, 17n7, arriving at Canton, Oct. 28, 
1788, (Staples's "Annals," p. .'iol ; "Journals of Major Sanuiel Shaw," p. 2'.t5), 
and was not only the first Rhode Island vessel in Chinese waters, but one of 



A CITIZEN OF PROVIDENCE. lOo 

TIIK QUESTION OF IIKillWAYS AND STKEKTS. 

Vn\i :i coinmercial town iicedeJ also easy lines of 
coninuinication with the localities which served as 
feeders of trade in the interior of New England. i 
Nature had so placed both Newport and Providence, 
on the outer rim of a small colony, that it was well 
nigh impossible that they should not become centres 
of trade, and markets for the exchange of products, 
ft)r the circle of outlying country, even though it 
should include Plymouth or Massachusetts Bay ter- 
ritory. But if anything could hinder this beneficent 
tendency, it was the almost total lack of attention to 
the roads which connected Providence with Worces- 
ter on the north, Kehoboth, Taunton and Bristol on 
the cast, and New London on the south. Attempts 
had indeed been made to push through two highways 

tlie first ton Aiiii'iicaii ships. A sloop from New Vorlv, the Enterprise, (sec 
Hishop's "AiiKiicau inamifactiues," I. (H), was the lirst American vessel to 
make " a direct voya^je to that country," in 1785; being followed by the sliip, 
Empress of China, wliieh sailed from New Yorlc, Feb. 2-_', 17S4, arriving at 
Canton, Aug. 30, 1785. See the " .loiiruals of 31ajor Samuel Shaw," p. 13:j, 
1C3, :'..")'.» ; also the '• Jlemorial history of IJo.ston," IV. ~'08. 
1 See Dorr's '■ Providence," p. 17-', 207. 



104 STKriiEN HOPKINS. 

on the west, to Woodstock^ and to Plaintield,' in the 
Connecticut Coh)ny, but hitherto without success. 
But, says Mr. Dorr, 

"The generation which came in with tiie last centuiy was 
weaiy of llie seclusion of the priuiilive town — disowned bj' its 
puritan ueighliors, and not caring to cultivate intercourse with 
them in return. The new townsmen applied themselves to the 
opening of highways, in order to develop their own resources, 
and to avail themselves of the wealth of their neighbors."^ 

Ot" this new generation, Stephen Hopkins was one 
of the most conspicuous and thorough representatives. 

"Nothing," w^rote one of the representatives of 
the new order of Provi(]encc citizenshi[), in 1773, 
" nothing contributes more to the growth of any 
phicc, tlum having the avenues leading to it kept in 
good order, — and that they be as many as possible."^ 
We have already seen"* that in 1737, before his removal 
fi'om Scituate, the duty of re-surveying the Provi- 
dence and Scituate lands had been laid upon Stephen 
Hopkins. Taking advantage of the opportunity thus 

1 See page 30. 2 Don's " rrovidence," p. 122. 

."? Providence Gazette, Feb. 13, 177.3; in connection with an appeal to tlie 
public in behalf of a bridge at India Point. Perhaps written by John Brown. 
4 See page GC. 



A CITIZEN OF PROVIDENCE. 105 

offered, he seems to have IVoiii this time taken every 
means in his power to bring the necessity for a more 
enlightened policy home to the members of the 
General Assembly, and the public at large. In the 
General Assembly he had pressed the necessity for a 
new and improved route for the Plainfield road, in 
1734;' and of two new bridges on the same road, in 
1735 f and now in 3 740 we tind the General Assem- 
bly taking action for the buildiug of Pawtucket 
bridge, and keeping open a highway to Boston r' and 
similar action again in 1741,^ (Stephen Hopkins, 
speaker) ; also in 1741 appointing a committee, 
(Stephen Hopkins, chairman), on a much needed 
highway in Warwick;-^ and in 1742 making appro- 
priations for seven bridges in various parts of the 
colony .'5 The rclucttmce to bridging the " Seekonk 
Kivcr," either at the present " lied Bridge " or " India 
Bridge," was perhaps due to more than one reason. 
It may have been felt, however, that the towns to 
the east and south-east, (Rehoboth, Swanzey, Bris- 

1 R. I. Col. Kccoids, IV. WJ. -^ Ibid., IV. 51-. 

3 Und., IV. 585. ^ Ibid., Y. :!f.. 

5 n.id., V. r;, 5-. '' H'iti- '^■- -^o- 



106 STEPHEN HOPKINS. 

tol), had water coinnuuiication with Providence, and 
that that would be suthcient. At all events, the pro- 
ject for a bridge at India Point, though advocated in 
177o with persuasive eloquence, by John and Joseph 
Brown, Nicholas Cooke, i and others, was coniiielled 
to wait until 1792, when it was carried through by 
the enterprise of John Brown, alone.- Above the 
ferries over the Seekonk, the river could l)e turned 
to some slight commercial use, as for instance in 
floating lumber doirn from the Massachusetts forests ;3 
but its utility was only in this direction. It was 
"good only one way." It offered no lacilities, like 
the Connecticut, for the transportation of articles of 
commerce up, as well as down ; dammed as it every- 
"vvhere was, with natural waterfalls.^ This fact ren- 

1 I'rovidence Gii-clU. Ffb. i:!, 177:!. 

'2 Don's " rrovicicncc," p. 230. .3 See page 100. 

4 " The foundation of commerce," says Col. Charles W. Lippitt, in a recent 
very comprehensive and pain.staking survey of the commerce of Providence, 
" is quick communication." " Tlie rocky hills of Kliode Island furni.<lied an 
adequate reason for the loss of tlie commerce that formerly sought her shores. 
Not a river falling into Narragansett Bay is navigable for any distance from 
its nioutli." "The cataracts common to tliese rivers tliat liave created Paw- 
tucket, Woonsocket, Lonsdale and .Mliion, Natick and Arkwright," etc., 
"stood as impassal)le harriers ihat the tlien known means of transporta 



A CITIZPIN OF PKOVIDENCK. 107 

dered necessary us close attention to the land high- 
ways in this direction as towards the west and south. 
But a commercial town needed more than easy 
access from the outlying territory. It needed 
equally an intelligent development of its internal 
system of roads and streets. Of this movement also, 
" the most radical change proposed during the last 
century," i Stephen Hopkins appears to have been 
a most effective promoter. It will certainly not be 
unprotitable to examine the basis underlying this im- 
portant change, which in one sense may be regarded 
as the line of separation between the agricultural town 
of the seventeenth century, (most properly designa- 
ted " Plantations,") and the commercial and manufac- 
turing town of the last one hundred and twenty-tive 

tion were unable protital>Iy to siirmoiuit." (Annual aildress of president of 
tlie Providence Board of Trad", Jan. 10, ISSi, p. 7). No Yunliee guess appears 
to have solved tlie riddle of this Sphinx of unnavigable rivers, and it was left 
for the Englishman, Samuel Slater, in 1789, to show what an era of manufac- 
turing pre-eminence, based on these very waterfalls, was open to the well- 
directed efi'orts of Rhode Islanders. See White's " Life of Samuel Slater." 
Samuel Slater married iu 1791, a distant kinswoman of Governor Hopkins, 
Hannah Wilkinson, in tlie si.vth generation from the original ancestor. (Wil- 
kinson Memoirs, p. 22(5) . 
1 Dorr's " Providence," p. 150. 



108 STi;riiEN iiofklns. 

years. The desiiiii of tlic original proprietors^ was 
not a close corporation.- IJnt, says Air. Dorr, "the 
town was made sucli, some years later." The tract 
of land'* which had been split into long, rihhon-likc 
estates, hy the "home-lot" assignment in 1(538, h:id 
scarcely, np to this time, (1742), been penetrated-* 
l)y anj^ ways for travel, (with the exception of the 
two'' expressly indicated*^ in the original division), 
which had been regularly :iccei)ted by the town.^ 
The proprietors' own dwellings had been placed on 

1 Till' lirst " purcliasfi-s," in i(i:!s, and tlic " quin-tcr-right )iui-cliasers " ol' 
ir>45, and previously, (Stapk's's "Annals," j). :M-;!5, (i(Mil), Cdniiirisedflie body 
ol'proiu-ietoi's, admitted fVoni time t<i time. The whole nunibei-, says Staples, 
"never exceeded one hundred and one persons." ("Annals," p. (in). 

2 They had the power, by the deed executed by IJoger Williams, in lOCil, 
(confirnnitory of that of U'<:'>7), to admit otliers to their fellowship; and their 
"heirs, executors, administrators and assigns," likewise, were to succeed 
regularly to their rights in the purchase. 

:) This tract was, as has already been stated, that now bounded by Olney, 
nojie, and Wickenden, and North and South Jlaiu Streets. (Slaiiles's 
"Annals," p. :jO-:il, .'i4, 35). 

4 And even tlic " highway at the head of the lots," (the present Hope 
Street), was fenced across. (Dorr's " I'rovidence," p. Ki). 

5 Now known as Power Street and i\Ieeting Street. 

G By the woids, "a highway." See the manuscript "revised list." 
(I'rinted in Stiiples's "Annals,'']).:!.')). 

7 With the " old gangways," says 5Ir. Dorr, "the town meeting had noth- 
ing to do." 



A CITIZEN OF PROVIDENCE. 



109 



the end of their lots which joined the Town Street. 
A little farther up the hill, their successors had laid 
out the small family burial grounds, i of which there 
was a continuous though irregular line, from north ^ 
to south ;2 and nearer the "highway at the head of 
the lots," 3 were the pastures. The idea of "a 
town " thus conceived by these men of the first gen- 
eration Avas adopted with little change by their de- 
scendants, and the gradual filling up of "The Neck" 
crowded the houses, the business, and the travel, 
into the Town Street, and such ways as had branched 
out from it at the " North End," or even west of the 
river. 4 The rest of the land within the purchase 

1 There is a comprebensive discussion of these ear?y burial grounds in a 
paper read before tlie Rliode Island Historical Society, Nov. 15, ISSl, by C. B. 
Farnsworth. (Providence Journal, Nov. 16, 1881). 

2 It followed generally the line of the present Benefit Street. (Dorr's 
" Providence," p. 45). 

;< Now Hope Street. 

4 " It is," says Mr. Dorr, " a singular illustration of the resistance of the 
old Plantations to any division of their home lots, or disturbance of their 
agricultural pursuits, that more than a century from their beginning, the pec 
pie were widely scattered over the western side of the ' Salt river? '" " while 
the Town Street was still tlie only important thoroughfare on the East." 
(Dorr's "Providence," p. 117). 

10 



110 STEPHEN HOPKINS. 

was regarded as " common land ;" — a part of it being 
the "stated common,"^ in which each proprietor had 
an original or inherited right for pastnrnge,^ or else 
land which was, at the snccessive meetings of the 
proprietors, parcelled ont^ in shares to each member, 
or a number of members. Such a thing as land 
understood to be "in the market,"^ as an inducement 

1 Sucli a " stilted common '' was on ."Smith's }Iil]. Sec tlie map preserved 
with the " proprietors' records." 

2 It is curious to notice that few early New Enghtnd communities seem to 
have more completely reproduced the Old Knglish and Germanic prototype of 
"a town" than I'rovidence. Such a " town,'" in its essential features, is thus 
described by Dr. H. I{. Adams, of Baltimore, in a recently inililished mono- 
graph : "A village community of allied families, settled in close proximity for 
good neighborhood and defense, with homes and home lots fence<l in and 
owned in severalty, hut with a coiumon Town Street, and a A'illage (ireen, or 
Home Pasture, and with common tields, allotted outside the town for individ- 
ual mowing and tillage, but fenced in common, togetlier with a vast sur- 
rounding tract of absolutely common and undivided land, used for pasture and 
woodland, under commercial regulations." (''Johns Hopkins University 
studies in historical and political science," II. ::.'7-'J8). In only one of these 
jjarticulars did the early Providence settlement vary from this prototype. It 
had no " Village Green ;" as it had no common burial-ground, (till 1700), 
meeting-house, school-house, or town-house. 

If Such was nearly all the land on the west side of the river, (lovcrnor 
Hopkins's grandfather received a "lay-out" of land "in half of his father's 
right," which comprised a large part of his ^Masjuijiaug estate. (Proxidence 
Deeds, etc., transcribed, p. 3L'y)- 

4 "The proprietors," says 5Ir. Dorr, "held a monopoly of the unsold 
lands," and " instead of ottering for sale their lands on the west side to persons 



A CITIZEN OF PROVIDENCE. Ill 

to straugers to come and settle among them, adding 
their quota of wealth, energy, and public spirit, was 
not the end in view. It cannot be regarded as 
stranse that, under these circumstances, wealth and 
population did not flow in with constant and increas- 
insf volume. Such as did flow in came at the more 
gradual and reluctant rate which required a century 
for that which might easily have been attained in a 
decade. 1 

The new-comers, though they might never become 
"proprietors," might readily become "freeholders, "2 
and did become freeholders ; and thus was inserted^ 
the thin edge of a wedge which one day was to split 
and essentially change the original plan of organiza- 
tion. Until the beginning of the eighteenth century, 

wlio would improve them, they, in 1718-19, caused tlicir property in ' Weybos 
sett Neck' to bo surveyed, and divided among themselves— to each owner a 
share." (Dorr's " Trovidence," p. 115). Tlie plat showing this division is 
still preserved among the " proprietors' records." 

1 Perhaps there could be no more striking contrast in this respect, than 
Newport and Providence, in the years previous to 17J0. 

2 The colony charter authorized this. (K. I. Col. Records, II. '.)). 

3 So early as 16G2, the " meetings of the proprietors " became no longer 
identical with the " town-meetings " of the citizens. (Staples's "Annals," p. 
131). They had the same clerk, however, till 1718. 



112 STEPHEN HOPKINS. 

the proprietors had the advantage of numbers, as 
well as of position and influence.' From that time, 
however, frequent collisions were inevitable, as the 
"ideas" and "theories" of the newer men were 
gradually recognized to be irreconcilable with "what 
had been from the beginning," and what the pro- 
prietors intended should continue. Some of the 
points at issue were the " lands in common " ^ which 
were not "in the market;" the fencing of highways, 
with gates to be opened and shut ;3 the question of a 
bridge, 4 the location of the "county house" ;^ the 
building of wharves and warehouses ;6 new highways, 
— in short, the question whether the predominating 
interest was to be commerce or agriculture. Audit 
was a question which, perhaps, a contest between 
the proprietors on the one side, and the " foreigners " 
on the other, never would have settled satisfactorily. 
Fortunately there were in Providence, young men 
of the fourth generation from the original proprie- 
tors, who fully appreciated the situation. 

1 Dorr's " Providence," p. 139-40. 2 Ibid., p. 115. 

8 Ibid., p. 82-84, 152. 4 Ibid., p. 104-8. 

5 Staples's "Auuals," p. 191-92. Dorr's "Providence," p. 94-104. 



A CITIZEN OF PROVIDENCE. 113 

The very year after Stephen Hopkins became a 
citizen of Providence, the issue was raised. A peti- 
tion was presented to the town council, asking for 
a street, parallel with the Town Street, and to the 
eastward of it.^ But this was upon the proprietors' 
soil. The petition was, of course, unsuccessful. 
But it was presented again in 174(3.2 Reluctantly 
and not very gracefully, the issue was recognized ; 
and one year later, (Feb. 15, 1747), a committee was 
appointed to inspect it and " make report to the coun- 
cil in some convenient time. "3 The report was in 
favor of it, but so great was the opposition which 
the measure encountered, that it was not fully carried 
throuo-h as then ordered, "^ until 1758.^ Stephen 
Hopkins, as the town records*^ testify, was a princi- 

1 The present Benefit Street. The line followed by it continued southward 
the line of an old " way," not more than twenty feet in width, which had ex- 
isted at some portion of its extent, (perhaps no farther than from the present 
Star Street, northward) , so early as 1718. See the plat of 1718, preserved with 
the " proprietors' record.^*." This " way " was upon the Whipple estate. 

2 Dorr's " Providence, " p. 147-48. 

3 Jeremiah Field, chairman. (Dorr's " Trovidence," p. 149). 

4 It was expressly intended to run, at this time, no farther south than 
Power Street; and its northern end perhaps did not at first connect with the 
" way " of 1718. " The extensions at either end were afterthoughts." (Dorr's 
" Providence," p. 150). 

5 Dorr's " Providence," p. 152. 6 See the petition of Oct. 27, 1740. 



114 STEPHEN HOPKINS. 

pal mover! in this aftair. The contest was protracted 
but the issue was decisive; and "thus," says Mr. 
Dorr, "the old town yielded to the new."^ The "old 
dehate-s," the same writer elsewhere saj's, "were 
ended," " The days of Gregory Dexter and Gor- 
ton, had gone hy."^ The days of men like Stephen 
Hopkins were taking their place, and were to be 
characterized by pluck, energy, and enterprise. 

OTHER ENTERPRISES. 

The vei'y next year alter the presentation of this 
first Benefit Street^ petition, the important question 
of the bridge at Wcybosset came up^ for action ; and 
here again the name of Stephen Hopkins is found 
among the promoters^ of the enterprise.^ The 
brid<2:e had not been rebuilt since 1719,^ and the 
opposition which this most necessarj'^ step met with 

1 He may have written the petition of 1740, to which his name is signed. 
So also, Mr. Dorr suggests, may Dr. Gibbs, his connection by marriage. 

2 Dorr's " rrovidence," p. 151. 3 Ibid., p. 1.34. 

4 Tile name " Benefit Street," appears to date from 1747. (Dorr's " Provi- 
dence," p. 149). 

5 1744. (li. I. Col. Records, V. 100). 6 Staplcs's "Annals," p. 198. 

7 The method adopted for securing the funds was a lottery, a practice 
«xceedingly common in the years following this date. 

8 Dorr's " Providence," p. 108. 



A CITIZEN OF TROVIDENCE. 115 

can hardly be accounted for except by supposing 
that the gradual advance of the " West Side " ^ in 
popuUition and importance was not wholly approved 
in "The Neck." 

A public market was an enterprise which appears 
to have had the support of Stephen Hopkins from 
the beginning, and though not finally secured until 
nearly thirty years later,2 was a most natural accom- 
paniment of that enterprise which had rebuilt Wey- 
bosset Brido:e, had brousrht the centre^ of business 

1 This appreheusion witli regard to the West Side was well founded. Even 
so early as this, the present Weybosset Street, with its continuation, had 
taken a formidable start, as being the direct road from Boston to New York. 
*' Uuildings sprang up," says Mr. Dorr, " shops and inns — along the line of 
travel, and the road to Narragansett became the earliest rival of the Town 
Street." (Dorr's "Providence," p. 132). Westminster Street, though laid 
out before 1763, was but slowly built up, and had in 1771, only five houses. 
(Stone's "John Rowland," p. 31). 

The definite purpose of the second bridge, says Mr. Dorr, was that "of devel- 
opment and growth," and the highways laid out westward from it "carried 
forward the same design." (Dorr's " Trovidcnce," p. 120). 

2 1773. Stephen Hopkins and Joseph Brown were tlien appointed "direc- 
tors " to supervise its erection. (Staples's "Annals," p. 202). 

3 When in 1729 a " county house " was to be erected in Trovidencc, it was 
contended with great warmth that the most central location for it was on 
" laud of James Olncy, on or near what is now Olncy Street." (Staples's 
"Annals," p. 191-92). But it was finally located on the lot next south of the 
present site of the State House; (the latter building dating from 1702). Its 



116 STEPHEN HOPKIKS. 

from the foot of Stampers Hill to the public square^ 
at iIiG bridge, ai)4l was gradually transferring the 
headquarters of the shipping interest to a point below 
the bridge. The petition already alluded to- as 
having been probablj^ written I)}' him shows that, 
even in 1746, the practice of making the Town Street 
virtually a market place had great inconveniences. 
It represents-'' that the recent increase in population 
has ^" much increased the trade and business therein 
[i. e., in the Town Street] transacted, by which so 
great a number of carts," and of "horses and people 
are necessarily employed that the street" is most 
inconveniently choked up. His foresight was a 
part of that enlightened policy which had determined 
"that Providence should have a market of its own, 
and should be a competitor with its contemporary 
towns." 4 

" establishment," says 5Ir. Dorr, "so far to the southward, was a victory of 
the progressive men of that day." (Dorr's " Providence," p. 155). 

1 The name, Market Square, does not appear to liave been given it until 
177.3. The space was, liowcvcr, laid out by the town in 17-38. (Dorr's " I'rovi- 
dence," p. HI). Tlie " hay ward," or " Iiaymarket," was established here in 
some year not long subsequent to this. (Don-'s " Providence," p. 157). 

2 See page 114. 3 Printed in Dorr's " Providence," p. 147. 
4 Dorr's "Providence," p. 134. 



A CITIZEN OF PROVIDENCE. 



117 



No banki nor insurance office^ was incorporated 
in Providence until tlie last decade of the century. 
Yet a system of insurance policies, highly appre- 
<;iated bv the merchants of this earlier period, seems 
to have been instituted by Stephen Hopkins. "Gov- 
ernor Hopkins," says Moses Brown, 3 "as early as 
1756, and probably earlier, held an office by him- 
self," for issuing insurance policies. Other "fillers 
of policies," he elsewhere adds, were "John Gerrish 
iind Joseph Lawrence."-* The risks taken were 
doubtless chiefly if not entirely marine, rather than 
fire risks, and are an interesting indication of the 
commercial development of the town. 

1 The first was the Providence Bank, iroi. (Staples's "Annals," p. 357). 

'i The first insurance company regularly incorporated was the Providence 
Insurance Co., (incorporated Feb. 3, 1799) ; which on being united with the 
Washington Insurance Co., (incorporated Feb. 17, ISOO), became in 1S20, the 
«' Providence Washington Insurance Co.," which is now one of the oldest in 
existence in Providence and in New England. Compare also the Providence 
Gazette, March 29, 1800; also Rider's BookXotes, Providence, Sept. 22, 18S3. 

.■? Moses Brown's letter to Tristam Burges, Jan. 12, 1S36. 

4 Also Henry Paget. See advertisement iu Providence Gazette, Nov. 20, 
1762. See also an advertisement in the Providence Gazette, Dec. 7, 1782. 
" These is somewhere in being," wrote Moses Brown in 1836, " a list of all the 
vessels sailing or owned from here, collected by Joseph Lawrence, which 
contains the tonnage of each, and the owners' names." (Letter to Tristam 
Burges, Jan. 1'2, 1S30). Unfortunately he was unable to find the list, and it 
lias not been handed down to us. 



118 STEPHEN HOPKINS. 

EDUCATION IN PROVIDENCE. 

It will readily be seen that the town had had few 
citizens, — perhaps none, — more thoroughly attentive 
to its material interests. But Hopkins's care and 
solicitude were by no means limited to these. Un- 
like not a few "self-made" men, he appears at all 
times in his career to have had a lively appreciation 
of the other and no less important half of the ques- 
tion of human development. His young friend, 
Moses Brown, when not quite thirty years of age,^ 
iit once took up the issue, and throughout the remain- 
•der of his long life, was one of the most per- 
sistent and effective agitators in behalf of the 
schools. So early as 1738, the committee ap- 
pointed "to revise the bounds of the highways," 
acting under the diiection of Stephen Hopkins's 
brother, 2 as chairman, and acting, perhaps, under 
the recommendations of Stephen Hopkins him- 

1 irG7. He was born in 173S. He died iu 1830, lacking only a few weeks of 
reaching liis 08th year. 

2 Col. William Hopkins. In 1690, their grandfather, Major William Hop- 
kins, had been one of the petitioners for a school-house at the North End. 
(Staples's "Annals," p. 4'J4}. 



A CITIZEN OF PROVIDENCE. 119 

self, ill his report of the year before, i had designatecl 
"a lot opposite the west end of the court-house 
parade, for a school-house lot. '"2 This recommenda- 
tion was favorably acted on, and although it does 
not appear in what year the building was erected, 
one was standing there so early as 1752. In that 
year a committee was chosen by the tow'u, (Stephen 
Hopkins's brother, Esek, being a member), 3 "to 
have the care of the town"* school-house." ^ Among- 
other public spirited citizens^ associated during 
these years with Stephen Hopkins and i\[oses Brown^ 

1 "In 1737 he was employed by the proprietors" "to revise the Tow» 
street," says Moses Brown. (Letter to Robert Wain, 1823). With this re- 
vision lie submitted a map. 

2 Staples's "Annals," p. 494-95. It is shown on the " plat of the ware- 
house lots," dated 1747, in the " proprietors' records." AVhetber this plat, like 
that of the proprietors, dated ten years earlier, was drawn by Stephen Hop- 
kins, does not appear. This was the year in which he was successful in his 
connection with the Benefit Street project. (Dorr's " Providence," p. 147-50). 
See pages 113-114, of this work. 

3 Town meeting records, Oct. 9, 1752. (St.iples's "Annals," p. 495). 

4 It appears that the extent to which the town went at this time, in its 
"support" of a public school, was limited to " furnishing a room at a fixed 
rent." (Staples's "Annals," p. 495). The teacher was paid by the pupils. 

5 Staples's "Annals," p. 495. 

6 As shown in the record of successive committees appointed by the town ► 
(Staples's "Annals," p. 495-96). 



120 STEPHEN HOPKINS. 

in their unremitting but decidedly up-hill endeavors 
to establish the system, were Nicholas Brown, i John 
Brown, 1 Daniel Abbott, 2 John Jenckes, Samuel 
Nightingale, 3 Nicholas Cooke, -^ Darius Sessions, ^ and 
Jabcz Bowen.c The last named citizen, almost alone 

1 Brothers of Moses Brown, and hardly less interested than hinisell', in tlie 
movement now in hand. 

2 He was not only active in securing the bridge at Weybosset, in 1~11, 
(Stone's " Jolin Howland," p. 3'.i), but when, in 173><, tlie revision of the "ware- 
house lot s " was accomplislied, it was apparently owing to his public spirit that 
" a corner of said Abbott's land " was named as the southern extent of a thus 
greatly enlarged open space, later known as ^Market Square. (Dorr's " Provi- 
dence," p. 141). Eight years later, Jlay 19, 1740, he made over to the town, 
" the common, so called, Jnow Abbott I'ark] for passing and repassing, train- 
ing and the like, always to be kept clear and free of any building forever." A 
little more of this enlightened thoughtfulness for the succeeding generations 
would have placed us under still greater obligations to him. 

3 Together with his enterprising partner, John Innes Clark, he did much 
to devoloj) the importing trade of Providence. " Clark and Nightingale," says 
3Ir. Dorr, were among "the chief importers of English and Irish goods." 
(Dorr's "Providence," p. 108-00). Their wharf stood where 8teei)!e Street 
now is. 

4 I'he future governor of Ivhode Island during the tirst three years of the 
war of independence. 

C> (.iovernor Hopkins's associate in various connections during the period of 
the committees of correspondence. (See Wells's " Samuel Adams," II. 1.3-17). 

(i .labez Bowen, the younger, (who died in ISIS), w.as a nephew of Daniel 
Abbott, and was one of the most continuously useful citizens of his day. In the 
movenu'nt for a school system, in the revolutionary struggle, in the resistance 



A CITIZKN OF rilOVIDENCK. 121 

of the citizens of Providence in 17()7,i was a grad- 
uate of a college.- To him is due^ the very com- 
prehensive^ report'^ presented to the town in the 
next year,'' (Messrs. Sessions and Xightingale, with 
Moses Brown, comprising the other members of the 
connnittee). The rc[)ort was r«;jected ;" after having 

to the paper-money iiiadues.s, in the nitirtcation of the natioiuil constitution, 
and in connection with tlie foundation and developniLMit of IJi-own University, 
lie was invariably to he. depended on. See Stai)Ie-;'s '-Annals," /icifinim. 

1 Silas Downer, a gi"iduate of Haivard, In the elates of iriT, and Ilev. Jlr. 
Graves, of King's Church, ai)i)ear to l)e the only others. Not nnfil irO'.Mvas 
the first class graduated from Ilhode Island College. 

2 Yale College; cla-!s of 1?.j7. Chlt'f-justice John Sloss lloliart, of New 
York, was a classmate. 

3 It is, says Staples, " in the hand writing of the late (iov. [i. c, hieu- 
tenant Governor] IJowen." ('-Annals," p. l'.)7). \'et it is in-ohahle that this 
report is even more directly tin; inspiration of Governor Hopkins than has 
been generally sujjposed; for there has been preserved among a few miscel- 
laneous papers of Stephen Hopkins, a "preamble" very similarly worded. 
(Printed in Sanderson's " Signers," VI. 251). "All institutions of learning," 
says Governor Hopkins's draught, " beconu' so imich more useful as they are 
more free, and witiiin reach of tlie j)oor as wi>ll as the rich." A comparison of 
this language with the preamble of .labez IJowen's committee, (Staples's 
"Annals," p. 4i'7),will show a decided correspondence. There was undoubtedly 
some communication between them. 

4 It provided for a levy of EV.JO " on the polls and estates of tlie inliabitants 
of this town." (Staples's "Annals," p. 41)8). 

5 Staples's "Annals," p. ■i'.)7-5aO. " Neither " this nor one on building a 
school house, says Staples, " is on file or recorded." 

(i .Ian. 1, ir()8. 

7 Town meeting records, ,Jan. 1, 1768. 

II 



122 STEPHEN HOPKINS. 

been " first voted by the town with great freedom,"^ 
and a minute affixed to it by Moses Brown indicates 
some of the reasons. One cannot forbear sharing 
his snrprise, as he records : "What is most surpris- 
ing and remarkable, the phm of a free school, sup- 
ported hy a tax, was rejected by the pooi-er sort of 
the people."- A lack of "public spirit"^ to appre- 
ciate and execute a measure which would so surely 
benefit themselves,^ he conceives to be the chief rea- 
son. He could not have hit the nail more s(piarely 
on the head. A lack of " i)ublic spirit," indeed, it 
was, which not only he i)ut his thi'ce brothers, — and 
no less Governor ll()i)kins, hituself, — found in re- 
peated instances thereafter, lying like; a senseless log 
across the patli of some needed ini[)rovement or pub- 
lic euter[)iMsc. It was the inevitable outcome of the 
enforced ignorance in which this same " poorer sort 
of the people" had for generations been coming up 
to citizenship and to a control of the town's policy ; 
as well as of the years of placid indifference to any 

1 The language of Mo.scs IJrowii, (Staijlus's "Annals," p. 500). 

2 Staples's "Annals," p. 500. 3 Ildd., j). 500. 

4 Tlic inovcnmnt, says .lohii Ilouiaiid, " met witli the most opposition from 
the class it was designeil to benefit. " (Stone's "John Howlanfl," p. VM). 



A cm;'. EN OF PROVIDENCE, 



123 



but the luuTowost interests, on the part of the nuun 
body of the proprietors. These eighteenth century 
citizens, however, at the head of whom were Hop- 
kins and Bowen, were men of phick as well as en- 
terprise, and they did not rest until they liad carried 
their |)()int. Stephen Hopkins ended his h)ng life 
before the final result was reached ; but Jahez Bowen 
lived to serve as a member' of the school committee 
of the town under the act of the General Assembly 
passed in 1800,2 since which the town of Providence 
has never been without public schools ; and Moses 
Brown lived to see the re-organized system of 1828^ 
adopted, since which time the state has at no time 
been deprived of the same benetits. 



^. A 



1 Staples's "Annals," p. 510. 

2 Barnard's " Keport and documents relatini? to tlie publio schools of 
Rhode Island," l^ts, p. :!'.). It was repealed in 180:j, but the system continued 
in operation in Trovidenoe. 

3 See Higginson's •■ History of public education in Kliode Island," p. :]S-io. 

4 The biographer of John Uowland, whose is the distingiuslied honor of 
being known as " Uie father of the free school system of Rhode Island," in 
citing the names of those whose -cooperation and i)ersonal exertions were 
added to his, and who '■ will ever be litld in grateful remcndirance for the in- 
tercst they early exhibited in the sacred cause of education," names, first of 
all, Stephen Hopkins. (Stone's " Jolin llowland," p. HI))- 



124 STEPHEN HOriCINS. 

LII'.RAKIES IN niOVlDENX'E. 

All aciito observer,^ in u recent survey ot a single 
phase of the progressive development ot" Rhode Is- 
land, reaches the conclusion that "wherever we see 
the state or any part ot its people, moving in ways 
higher than the average, there we are sure to tind 
Stephen Hopkins prominent in the movement.""- This 
is conspicuously manifest in his connection with the 
movements to develop the town's commerce, the 
town's higinvays, and the town's schools ; yet it is 
perhaps cpiite as manifest in another matter, of less 
commanding i)rominence, but of no less marked in- 
terest, — the establishment of the Providence Library 
about 1754.'' Occasion has alread}' arisen for notic- 
ing the circumstances under which the reading habit 
was planted in tlie mind of the l)o\', Stephen.' It 
was now bearing tVait, Several characteristics of 
the man are to l)e observed in his use of books. It 
was [)ursued with constant and unllagging interest. 
"His pul)lic life," says one writer, "made him the 

1 ('liiof-justioe Durfcc 

2 Durfee's " Gk'iiiiings from ilii' jmliuiMl liisrorv of Khod:' Island, " (K.*!. 
Historical Tract, \o. lis), p. '.».!. 

."i K. [. CdI. llcconiR, v. ;!7t<-7'.i. 4 Sie pagt-s ■i8-4S>. 



A CITIZKN OF PKOVIDEIsCK. 125 

servant of all ; and he was a close and severe stndent, 
filling np all the .spare hours of his life with read- 
ing."'^ It was at once thorough and comprehensive. 
"He was a man,'' says Chief-justice Durfee, " of ex- 
traordinary capacity," — "omnivorous of knowledge, 
which his energetic mind rapidly converted into 
power.'' 2 A friend of his later years declared that 
he had " never known a man of more universal read- 
ing, nor one whose memory was so faithful.''-' His 
method of historical research w;is the correct 
one. "Holding," says another writer,^ "all 
abridirmeuts and abridgers, in very low estimation, 
it is cited, in excmplitication of his iiabitual deep 
research," "that instead of depending upon sum- 
maries and concentrated authorities, he persever- 
ino-ly perused" the original sources'" of iuf)rmation. 

1 Beaman's ■'Scituate," p. Ul. 

•> Durlff's " (ileanings from tlit-juilicial liistory of Ulioile Island," p. »)2-9;{. 

3 Remarks of Asher llobbins at ^COtli aunivi rsiuy of T'rovidtiu'i" ; (in 
Providence Journal, Aug. 8, IS^SO). 

4 Sanderson's " Signers," VI. 248. (On the information of Moses Brown). 

5 Among the instances cited is Thurloe's "Collection of state papers;" 
which, says Mr. nunter, he " read through and annotated." One can hardly 
imagine a more absolutely repulsive task than this would have been to more 



126 STEPHEN HOPKINS, 

He mude his rending not onlv a moans of culture, 
hut a means of discipline. He was "skilled in many 
branches of the liberal arts," says one writer.' 
Another testimony pronounces him " a scholar, a 
man of science and ii^oneral literature."-' His " read- 
ing," iiowever, had not merely made him "a full 
man," to quote Lord Bacon, ^ but the mental disci- 
pline which accompanied it had made him "a ready 
man "^ and "an exact man.""> 

* It was beyond the range of [)robal)ility that he 
could long content himself with the meagre collec- 

tliaii one of lii« coiilciiipoiMrii'S. Al tliu saiiio liiiic, it is easy to sec that lio 
(oiilil lia\e i.iiueii ill Ccw (lirei-fioiis which woiiUl luivc so thoroiijjhly e<]uippc(I 
liiiii ibr his S!ibs((|iieiii laljois in ailvocatiiig the rishli^ of American colonies 
inuler tlie Knglisli crown. Uis aiifaf^onists nii^rht well find occasion to heed 
the connsel, "beware of tlie man of one hook,"" e\ en thon^'Ii Uopkins cotild 
not projierly be so designati-d. 

1 Sanderson's "Signers, " \'I. 'J4'.t. 

2 IJwislit's " Sij;ners," |i. (V.K 

3 Hacon's Kssay " Of sln<lies," (■' Kssays." iNo. :>0). 

4 See the instances given of liis retentive memory in Sanderson's "Si<i;iu'rs," 
VI. 248-40. 

5 See the interesting,' account of his iiarticipation in tlie observatifin of the 
transit of \'eniis in l?(i9. (West's "Account of the observation of Venns upon 
the sun"). .Vlso Moses Brown's account. (Letter to Robert Wain. 1S2:!). Mr. 
West dedicated the pamphlet just cited to (governor Uopkins in testimony of 
"your honour's superior abilities in niiithematics and natural philosophy." 



A CITIZEN OF PROVIDENCE. 127 

tions of books such as were to be foinul ;it the Wil- 
kinson li'oraiy of" his boyhood,' oi- were iiiiywhere 
accessible in Providence before 1750. His visits to 
New[)ort, i)egiin as early as 1732,- and continued 
without interruption, several times in each year,^ 
had made him' familiar, beyond doubt, ^ with the 
treasures of the library collected so early as 1730,» 
under Dean Berkeley's interested supervision ; and 
later organized as the "Redwood Library," in 1747 ; 
Stephen Hopkins's own kinsman, Joseph Whipple, 
Jr., being one of the incorporators.^. 

It is possible that his experience at Providence 
was somewhat similar to that of Franklin at Phila- 
delphia. 

"At the time' 1 establish'd myself in Penusylvauiu," says 
Frankliu, " there was uot a good bookseller's shop in any of the 
colonies to the southward of Hoston. Those who lov'd reading 

1 See pages 46-48. 

2 As member of tlie General Assembly. (K. I. Col. Records, IV. 468). 

3 See pages 72-73. 4 See page 76. 

5 Dr. Uavid King's " Historical sketch of the Kedwood Library and 
Athenaeum," p. 3. 

fi King's " Historical sketch of the Redwood Library," p. 4. His name 
stands next to that of William Ellery. 

7 1723. 



128 STEPHEN HOPKINS. 

were obligM to semi for their books from Eughuid. The mem- 
bers of the Junto had each a few." " I propos'd that \vc should 
all of us bring our books to [one] room, where they would not only 
be ready to consult in our conferences, but become a common 
benefit, each of us being at liberty to borrow such as he wish'd 
to read at home.'" 

This suo-ffested to Fraiikliirs ever-fertile brain the 
idea of "u public subscription library," which ho 
accordinoly founded ; and, he adds, " the institution 
soon manifested its utility."- 

There is a strikino- resemblance^' l)etween this 
experience of Franklin, and that of the studious 
Rhode Islander, who, in the next twenty' years, was 
ransacking all the literaiy i-esources of Providence 
which could serve his purpose. Like Franklin, 
Hopkins fouiul no "good bookseller's sh(jp " in his 
town.^ fjike the Philadelphia associates, he and his 

1 Fraiikliu's Autobioj^rapliy. (liigelow'.- " Franklin," I. 'i-'O-:,'!). 

2 Bigolow's '• Franklin," I. L'v:l. 

3 n does not fully appear wln'ther tlu- Pliiladelpliia or the Newport experi- 
nient had on the whole the most influence in the formation of the Providence 
Library about 1751. U will perhaps be safest to conclude that the latter furnished 
the suggesliou and inspiration, while the former supplied a model, in most of 
its details. 

4 The iirst l>ooksellei- in Providence appears to have been Daniel Jenckes, 
about 1763. Uis book shop was "just, above " the (ireat JJridge, " at the sign 
of Shakespeare's head." (Dorr's " Providence," p. 1!»7). 



A CITIZEN OF PROVIDF.NCE. 129 

friends " raised and sent to England a sniu of money 
snfficient to purchase books to furnish a small 
library." 1 Like them also, they h)oked about for 
"a proper phice to keep the books in." Like the 
Philadelphia company, once more, they soon 
advanced to the point where they found it practica- 
ble to make it " a public subscription library." The 
year in which the first steps were taken is uncertain, 
though it may have been 1750.^ The associated 
members were in search of a place to store their 
books in 1754, when they sent to the General As- 
sembly a petition, 3 (Stephen Hopkins's name head- 
ing the list), that they might use " the council cham- 
ber in the court house'* at Providence" as their 
lil)rary room."' The petition was readily granted. 

1 R. r. Col. Rpcords, V. :ir'.t. 

2 Wilkinson say.s " in 17.50," but does not suite liis iiutliorily. (Wilkinson 
Memoirs, p. :300). 

Z K. I. Col. Kecorils, V. Isri^-zO. 

4 Erected in 17.31. (Staples's "Annals,'" p. lOJ). 

5 The earlier books were catalogued by Stephen Hopkins. (Letter of 
Moses ISrown, l.s'^:!). No copy of this catalogue is known to exist. But there 
is in the .John Carter P.rown library at I'rovidencc, a neatly printed " Cata- 
logue of all the books belonging to the Providence I, ibrary," published in 1708; 
and in this a star * is used to designate such of the books in the former col- 
lection as escaped burning by being in the hands of readers at the time of 



130 STKPHEN HOPKINS. 

Four yeur.s later,' unfortiiiuitely, the building was 
burned y^ nnd the groiitcr part of the lil)rary with it. 
Some of the treasures^ of the library, however, were 
at that time in the hands of renders, and were thus 
preserved."* On the completion of the suercs.sor to 
this building', (the i)resent State House biiihling), 
four years later,'' the lil)rary [)roi)rietors were again 
authorized" to make use of it for their newly collect- 
ed library." In l(So() its books became the property 

tliL' tire. 'I'lic cala!<>j;no is of no little interest, as show iiif> wliat hooks Stei'lieu 
Hopkins and his associates thoiiglil it necessary to liave at liand. 'J'lie classics 
are exceedingly well rejiresenti (i. So also is the standard Kuglish literature 
of that century as well as of previous periods. Milton and Hooker, the Spectator 
and the Guardian, Itacon and J^ocke, are on the library shelves. History is 
well ref/resenled in 'fhucydides, I'lutareh, Sallust, I'aeilus, Clarendon, IJurnct, 
and many otiiers; but I'rince's " New England chronology'' appears to be tlie 
only work of American history comprised, except Herrera and La Uontnn. 
These last entries show that Iheie were critical scholars among their readers. 
Political science and international law were rejiresented by Coke, ^'attel. I'uf- 
fendorf, Grotius, and the "Lex niercatoria rediviva." The library also con- 
tained a copy of Franklin's work on ■' Electricity," in (puirlo form. 

This catalogue is an exceedingly rare pamphlet. 

1 December :;:4, 175S. 2 Staples's "Annals," p. 53-4. 

3 It had now become, to use the language applied to it in 1759, •' a very 
valuable collection of books." (K. I. Col. Records, V. 215). 

4 These are designated by a star * in the catalogue of l?(i8. 

6 17(W. Staples's "Annals," p. IM. 6 I!. L Col. Kecords, VI. 215. 

7 Stephen Hopkins, says Moses ISrowu, was "active in securing another 
library, which arrived " soon after. (Letter to Uobcrt Wain, 182:i). 



A CITIZKN OF riiOVIDEN'CE. 131 

of the Providence AtheuaMim/ (incorporated 1831), 
which is thns its lineal successor. It was not until 
more than forty years later^ that a " pul)lic library " 
was established in Providence, on such a f>asis as to 
become, to use Stephen Hopkins's own language, ^ 
"so much the more useful as" it is "more free, and 
within reach of the poor as well as the rich." 

The end contemplated by these founders^ of the 

1 Staples's "Annals," p. 5:!-i-:W. Itss builiUng was opened to tlic public, July 
11,1838. Soe the "Discourse dcliverPd at the opening of the Providence 
AthenEeum," by I'lisident Francis Wayland, of lirown I'niversity. This 
library was, in 18r(>, the tenth in size in New England, and among the most 
carefully selected in the country. 

2 Opened to the public Feb. 4, 187^. "Firsl annual report of the librarian 
of the Providence Public Lilirar}." 

3 Used with reference to public schools. (Quoted in Sanderson's "biog- 
raphy of the signers," VI. 251. 

•1 Some of these were Stephen Hopkins, Chief-justice Cole, Judge Jenckes, 
Colonel Ephraim Bowen, and Nicholas Brown. Most of them were also mem- 
bers of that " political club," which was a very noteworthy factor in the 
development of a patrioticspirit during the years 1703-74, and in whose society, 
perhaps at Stephen Hopkins's house, John Adams's friend, Daniel Leonard, 
passed a very agreeable evening in 17<iO. (" Works of .lohn Adams," II. 181). 
Judge Cole, though long a resident of Providence,was a native of the Narragan- 
sett country, and was a son-in-law of Daniel Updike. (Updike's " Memoirs 
of the Rhode Island bar," p. 122-30, 35-64). Judge Jenckes, (of the Provi- 
dence County Court of Common Pleas), opened about 1763 the first bookstore 
in Providence. (See p. 128). He was a nephew of Governor Joseph Jencks; 
his wife was a cousin of Governor Hopkins's first wife; and one of his daugh' 



132 STEPHEN HOPKINS. 

library was, to quote their own language, "to pro- 
mote useful knowledge." ' Looking to the indirect 
as well as the direct results of their enterprise, it is 
plain that their [)urpose way abundantlj' realized.- 
Its influence may be traced in a wider outlook and 
more conii)rehensive gras[) of public questions, on 
the part of those wlio were the leaders at this 
period, and who made use of its treasures. But 
it is no slight honor to kStephen Hopkins and 
those associated with him, to have established this 
public subscription library here at so early a date. 
Aside from these two^* in this small colony of Rhode 

ters inarricd (iitvcriioi- Uopkins's iicijliew, Captain C'liristoplior Uopkins. 
Another (laujjlitci- nKuricil Nicholas Urown. Could tlifse two eiylitueuth 
century lil)niry jiroprittors, (Jeiickes and Brown), have looked into the next 
century, and seen tlie wealth of that private library collected by their descend- 
ant, and known as the " John Carter Brown library," they would doubtless 
have felt amply repaid for their i)ains ;ind labor. In the altluence of its 
treasures this stands to most other collections of works on America, some- 
what in the relation in which the sign of inlinity stands to ordinary 
numbers. Instead of rendering it necessaiy now to "send to England" 
to supi)leiucnt it, it has on several occasions been necessary for English 
historians to send to it for material. (See Bogers's "l'ri\ate libraries of 
Brovidence," ji. (i'.)-70. See also p. 104-5). 

1 n. I. Col. Uecords. V. :i7,S. 

2 111 one instance the beiietit was very direct. " No man,'' says Moses 
Brown, "knew better or improved more by reading" these books, than 
Stephen Hopkins. (Letter to Robert Wain, Ls-J3). 

3 Newport and Providence. 



A CITIZEN OF PHOVIDENCE. 133 

Island, there was at that time only one^ other "pub- 
lic library" in New England, outside of Boston. 2 

HIS LITEUAUY LABORS. 

How early in life Stephen Hopkins began tluit al- 
most continuous use of his pen which characterized the 
years from 1750 to 1770,3 does nut appear. One of 
the earliest papers of his of which we know, aside 
from official documents, is the "family record," already 
alluded to,^ dated February 3, 1754. Whether he 
made farther genealogical researches is also unknown. 
His position as a public officer, — aided, of course, by 
a very pronounced natural disposition for historical 
inquiries, — caused him to collect such papers as 

1 The Concord Public Liliniry, Concord, Mass., established 1072. "It is 
probable," says a statement of the trustees in 1875, " that a library, more or 
less public, has existed in Concord for a longer period of time than in any 
other town in the United States." (" Catalogue of the Free Public Library 
of Concord, Mass.," 1875, page v). 

2 See pages 47-48, 49-50. Stephen Hopkins's connection, fifteen years later, 
with the gathering of the volumes which have grown into the valuable Library 
of Brown University, Is described farther on in this work. See Chapter IX. 

3 It was in the neighborhood of this date that liis nervous affection begau 
to disable him. After this, says Sanderson, (" Signers," VI. 245), "when 
he wrote a't all," " lie was compelled to guide his right hand with the 
left." 

4 See page 9. Compare also .\ppendix C. 

12 



I.M 



iSTI'J'lU.:. ll'il'KfNM. 



("un<; ill liin way lli;il W(;)'c, of iii;';l,')ri<; inlriv'^t, ;iii(] 
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I'loiii llic (• ));i|)<:i ■, ;iii'l Irniii llic i iil flliyciil liidy' 
wliidi lie l)ri)ii"lil l<( l(C,ir iijioii IImmi, t ();'<t |j(|- willi 
hiirli iw))|;itc(;i I hi -I ()) ici I |)ii Idic'il loji . ;i •, li<- w.'ii- ;iM<; 
!,'» crdiiill III rroviili-iM'c, ,\'(-\v|)oi-t,, ;iiii| I'm l.oii, 
r(fHiill'<i lli , " III t'»ric;i| ;i(:(;()iiiil (,i llic |)l;ihtiii;' ;iii(| 
(.'fowlli 1)1 riovidriicc,,""'- wlii'li iinli.i)i|)il y in Ifll ii 



1 A si)/(ii'wli.il 1" 111.1/ I'.iiliji' i|i(/ri'- <if i'ill|r;il (i;m'Iii>Ii jiijiI jmlliiii) litli m-sii 
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ll<R IMll illloprl^lllir <:i||lllll<lll lllllllllf/ Wt'lli'l'.'; >li IiIk llllll'. till- III! lllill il|r:i:l|llil|l- 
W)l)i;ll III' Itrljllll'll h )i<l llll|i-- 11^ (lliiy li).J)ilM III III lll^ |i|i/:-< r-lv|i lis 
ruiywll"'!'' <'l»<', II liii.- ii</l, l</ Id- :-,iin-, iill lliiil 1- lo I/I- IhkImiI I</| In lli<- 
l/i'^l. I',ll(/)j.-li |)i'ii.-.i- .-lyli- <il loiliiy, 'I liiil 1.-^ I<i i-iiy. II liinl Mm <l<l>rl.: '.) 11.-. 

linn-. I'.lll )l llllll ^/H'ill l-Jil'I'lll'lli;!-.--, llUlll ill :-.|/'ll',< II Mini Wl jlllll fll.'TC'llll'KI!, 

Ill wii.-:, ••iiy.- .M'l^iK I'.riiwii, "iilwiiy.- I'lllii- j/ninl , < liiir, cidiilsi-, [n) Ijin'iil, 
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\Ki'iij, Any iiiM' wli'i will lulu- Mm limilili- hi rHiuiiliM- tiirli nl 'ioMiiior 
ll')lik))is'.5 Riali piijicr.- iin ii/i (iiliili il ill Ilii- ( i/l<))iy Kc-i-niib, wDI lie- )CBB 
lUfly I'l Oii'l llc'di liillmi^'. Iliiiii I') 1)1 iilliiiitli'l liy lln- li iiiipjiiii'i-i/cy idmI 
|))c)'11ly "<' Di'lr alyl'-. (>''■>' Uii lii.Miiini-, l(,. I. ci,), Kiiniiia, VI. r/n-n'.i, 
ll'J ii'i, ■Ui'i '■':/. ','i/iM)iiiri' iil.^') '.liiijili-r \lll. 1)1 llii.- w')ilt/. Till- Biiiiii- <(iiiilllii 8 
(di- JiiiulHiBl ijl l))« " MjKl'lllciti l»i;(;0lllll ni Hm liliinlln// nml )/ii)".lli >)( 
J'COVi'll IM'l'." 

U rillili •! ill III' /'/<-/!///<;/<v '///.<•//(, ill l/C)' Kinll/Ofi; li|.-i) III Mil •■rollir. 
Done 1)1' 11)1 Alii--:a)ir|iii:-i II.- 1 1 l.-loi lull 'ixli I y," ail I'l^ ;/, I .S . HKl :.'<);), Ii|;i) In 
lIli. ••fijil'iMiinn III Uir nii'oli' Islull'l lllBloijiiil rt.iiiils " VII. 



A <iri/i:N OF ri;(»vii)F,N(!K. l."^/") 

f'i'i»i»"iu(iit .1 Ili.s()ll\(M' writings- :i If, almost witliDiit 
(vvccplioii, ixililic.'il ill their iiiiliirc; :iii<l iiavf a most 
iiii|)(trt:iiil ciuiiuMlioii with llu' roiiiiiit ion of public 
opinion, Iract'd in siil>s(M|iit'iil cliaplfi's.^i 

'i'o a siihsocpUMit fliaplcr' lu'loiius also lli(> cotisid- 
tM'alioii of Sti'plu'ii llo[»kiiis'.s cMUiiu'ctioii with Iho 
loiiiitlatioii and .support ol' llu' earliest Providoiico 
no\vspai>er.' The motive tor its estahlishment at 
(hat time, (17(">2), was largely, i)tU'haps i)i'odoniiiia- 
lini^ly, — political. ll, Imwiver. played no iiniin- 
portant part in the unidual advaiu'i> ot llu^ now 
tlioroiiu'lily awakened town, aloii;;' its various liiu's 
ol' eommereial, ediieational and social proiii'oss. 

SKViaJAI. KUANKI.IN lOKAS. 

The stiideiii of (lovernor Hopkins's i'art>er cannot, 
fail to remark tlu' repeated instances in which he is 
ill some way hriui^^ht into coniu'ction with lUMijamin 
Fnmklin. The noU'wurthy resemlilance in llu^ cir- 
cnnislMiicos under which thcii' " suhjcripl ion lihra- 

I ll siiipM III UW.i. I lii'i'i' I'liu lit' IlKk' (loiilit Ilitii he hail iiiiiti'iiiil I'or I'lir- 
ryl«K It I'urllx'i'. 
•J 8»'.' ApiMiulK H. a S.'c Clmiitos VI.. \ III., |\. 

•I SiH' rliii|iiii' \ HI ft 'I'Uv l^roviilcncff liir.i tie. 



136 STEPHEN HOPKINS. 

ries" were established, has ah'eacly been mentioned.' 
The establishment of this newspaper in 17G2 is more 
than likely to have grown ont of Hopkins's oppor- 
tnnity for observing Franklin's pre-eminent success in 
forming public opinion by his newspaper at Phila- 
delphia,- and also, perhaps, from correspondence^ 
with him regarding it. Only six years later (1768) 
the management of the Providoice Gazctfe passed 
into the hands of John Carter,'' a native of Philadel- 
phia, and one of Franklin's l)est tried and most 
approved apprentices. The mastei- in this case cer- 
tainly had no occasion to feel ashamed of his appren- 
tice's work.'' Two other " Franklin ideas " appear 
at Providence in or about 1754, the year from which 

1 See pages 127-20. 2 See cliapter VJII. 

3 No letters of tliis period are pre^e^ve(l, liowever. 

4 He was a eonstaut coadjutor of nojikiiis aiui tlje JJrowns, and his daugh- 
ter married tlie son of one of these four brothers, (Nichohis Brown, .Tr.). 

5 " The Ga-^c'l'e" says Staples, " under the editoiship of Jrr. Carter, is such 
a raonuinent as the liruiest patriot and the best citizen might honestly desire. 
He prided himself on the typographical correctness of his paper, and the pub- 
lic relied on the correctness of its contents. It would be difficult to find an 
error in eitlier department, justly chargeable to Mr. Carter." (Staples's 
"Annals," p. 514-45). This testimony is abundantly confirmed from other 
sources. John Carter Hrown, son of Nicholas Brown, the younger, was a 
grandson of .Tohn Carter, and was named for liini. 



A CITIZEN OF PROVIDENCE. 137 

the intimacy between Frunlvlin and Hopkins proba- 
bly dates. These are the post-office and the tire 
department. "No trace," says Staples, "can be 
found of tiie Hrst establishment of a post-office in 
Providence."' It is certain, however, that it existed 
in 1758,- and in all prol)abillty earlier. Franklin's 
appointment as deputy-post-master-gencral of the 
American colonies dates from 1753,3 though he had 
been appointed postmaster of Philadelphia, as early 
as 1737.' A systematic fire department, first put in 
practice by Franklin in Philadelphia in 11S6,^ was 
organized in Providence in 1754 f Hopkins's frequent 

1 Staplcs's "Annals," p. 014. 

2 Some attempt at postal service luid existed since KJ'Jl, (Stiiples's "An- 
nals," p. <U4), and as Providence was on tlie route from Boston to New York 
and the southern colonies, it gained the benetit of it. It was provided in 169.3, 
(R. I. Col. Records, III. .31;^), that the king's post should cross the ferry at the 
present Red Bridge, witli no hindrance. Thence it passed through Olney's 
Lane, and the Town Street, crossing by the ferry at Weybosset, and thence 
through Warwick and New London to New York. (Arnold's " Rhode Island," 
1.527). But no postmaster was appointed until the place was filled by Sam- 
uel Chase (or Chace), in one of the years, 1753-58. (Staples's "Annals," p. 
614; Dorr's " Providence," p. IW). 

3 Bigelow's " Franklin," I. .307. 4 Ibid., I. 261. 

5 Ibid., I. 263-00. 

6 Staples's '-Annals," p. 199-200; R. 1. Col. Records, V. 401. 



138 STEPHEN HOPKINS. 

associates in many an enterprise, Ohadiah Brown' 
andJaraes Angell,^ being the committee in charge of 
it. 

KAMILY CONNECTIONS. 

Dnring these years, moreover, his bnsiness, social, 
and family (-onnections had been gradnally but 
steadily widening the scope of his interests, and 
bringing him into relations not only with Providence 
and Newport society, but with some of the best 
known families of Boston. His brother Esek, mar- 
rying in 1741 into a Newport fimily, had become at 
once a resident of Newport.^ At about the same 
time' his brother John married the daughter of 
William Turpin, the inn-keeper"' and town treasurer. 

1 One of tlic earliest luerchaiits in tlic foreign trade; uncle of tlie "four 
brothers;" father-in-law of Closes Brown, anil of Jabe/. ISowen, Jr. 

2 Cousin to Governor Hoplcins's brother-in-law, Nathan Angell ; brother-in- 
law of Kiifus Hopkins; father-in-law of William (ioikiard, the printer; and 
grandfather of the late Professor Jacob Whitman Bailey, of West Point. 
James Angell was town clerk for seventeen xears, VbS-lCt. 

3 He nnirried Desire Burroughs, Nov. 28, 1741. He was a resident of New- 
port until 1755. (Hopkins genealogy, p. 24). 

4 The record of the date is not preserved. (Hopkins genealogy, p. 19). 

5 He h.ad succeeded his father, (William Turpin, senior), in KO'.), as pro- 
prietor of the principal inn in the place, which was, says Mr. Dorr, "appar- 



A CITIZKN OF PKOVIDENCK. 139 

His son Kiifus married in 1747, Abigail Angel 1,» 
whose father still dwelt on the original home lot, at 
the foot of Angel 1 Street. A few years later, his 
son John married Mary Gibbs, whose father, Robert 
Gibbs,2 was a native of Boston, and descended from 
the well known colonial families^' of Gibbs, Shetiffe, 

ontly the largest structure in the town until the building of tlie i)rcsent State 
House." Dorr's "Providence," p. 187). Until tliat time (17.'{1) tlie General 
Assembly, as weli as tlio courts, met iu tliis Ijuildinj;. (Staples's "Annals," 
p. 607). It stood on the west side of North Main Street, nearly opposite 
Bacon Street. William Turpin, senior, was, says Staples, " the first school- 
master iu Providence, of whom any mcinorliil remains. (Staples's "Annals," 
p. 493) . 

1 Her relationship with the Hopkins family was already somewhat compli- 
cated. James Angell, her father's cousin, had married Susannah Wilkinson, 
the aunt of Governor Hopkins. Her cousin, Nathan Angell, had married 
Abigail Hopkins, the sister of (iovernor Hopkins. Through both her father 
and her mother she was descended from Kev. Gregory Dexter, (and through 
her father from Roger Williams). (Angell genealogy, p. '.), 20, 21 ; Wilkinson 
Memoirs, p. 84, 80; Hopkins genealogy, p. 27, 29). 

2 "Dr. (iibbs," says Mr. Dorr, " was of Boston, a man of education, and 
rendered useful service by his activity in public affairs." He also mentions 
him as one of the " physicians of ability and note." (Dorr's " Providence," p. 
178, 179). Dr. Gibbs was horn in Boston about the year 1700. 

3 These four are among the most prominent Boston families of the seven- 
teentij centurj'. (See Mr. Bynner'.s and 5Ir. Whitmore's chapters in the 
" Memorial history of Boston "). Mrs. Hopkins's great-grandfather, Kobert 
Gibbs, was, says Mr. William H. Whitmore, " a noted merchant " of Boston, 
in that century. ("Memorial history of Boston," I. 58(5). His expensive Iiouse 
on Fort Hill is mentioned with admiring comment by several early chroniclers. 



140 STEPHEN HOPKINS. 

Shrimpton, and Oliver, while through her mother 
she was descended from Captain John Whipple.' In 
1750, Stephen Hopkins's nephew, Captain Christo- 
pher Hopkins,^ married Sarah Jenckes,'-^ daughter of 
Judge Daniel Jcnckes,^ Governor Hopkins's life-long 
friend. 

But duj-ing these same years a crushing series of 

Her gieat-great-grandfiitlier, Peter Oliver, was auotlier eminent Boston mer- 
chant, and one of the founders of the Old Soutli Church. His descendants con- 
temporary with Stephen Hoplcins were tlie well known loyalists. Lieutenant- 
governor Andrew (Jliver, and Chief-justice Peter Oliver. Still another distin- 
guished merchant was Mrs. Hopkins's great-great-grandfather, Jacob Sheaffe, 
who died in 105'.). "He seems," says Sav.age, "to have had the largest est[ate] 
of any that had hitherto died at Boston." (Savage's " Genealogical diction- 
ary," IV. 00). His brother-in-law, Kev. Henry Wliitiield, was an ancestor of 
Senator Tlieodore Foster. Mrs. Hopkins's great-grandfather was ,)onathau 
Shrimpton, whose family were noted landholders. His cousin, Colonel Sam- 
uel Shrimpton, was the owner of the land on which the Province House was 
built, and also of that on which the present State House of Massacluisetts 
jtands, as well as of the greater part of Beacon IHll. (," Blemoruil history of 
Boston,"!. .5:^7). 

1 John Whipple;' Joseph Whipple;- Aniey Whipple,'' ni. Bohert Gibbs; 
Mary Gibbs.^ Her husband's descent was as follows : John Whipple;' Abigail 
Whipple,'^ m. William Hopkins: William Hopkins ;3 Stephen Hopkins;* John 
Hopkins."' 

2 Son of Colonel William Hopkins. 

3 Her sister, Ilhoda Jenckes, married Nicholas Brown, one of the "four 
brothers." Her mother was a cousin of Governor Hopkins's tirst wife. 

4 See pages 1.31-32. 



A CITIZKN OF PROVIDENCE. 141 

bereavements had fallen on him. In 1744, his 
brother, Captain Samuel Hopkins, died' at Hispani- 
ola, in the West Indies, during one of his voyages. 
About six months later, his brother, John Hop- 
kins, likewise died-^ at sea. His youngest sister3 
died a few months later in the same year. But the 
most overwhelming blow came in 1753, when "with- 
in a period of six months," says the family annalist, 
"he was called upon to part with two sons'* in the 
early prime of their manhood, when their prospects 
for a creditable career of usefulness were of the most 
flatterinir characttu-," ■' and also as a last and most 
crushing blow, with his wife,*^ whose death resulted 
from the mental distress induced by the aggravating 
circumstances of these bereavements. Early in 1755 
his brother, Colonel William Hopkins, died." The 
brothers Stephen and Ksek now appear (o have been 

1 Hopkins genealogy, p. 20. 

2 Feb. 1, 1"4.5. (Hopkins genealogy, p. 19). 

3 Susanna. (Hopkins genealogy, p. 1-', 27). 

4 John and Silvanus. (Hopkins genealogy, p. .iO, :U-32, 18). 
6 Hopkins genealogy, p. 32. 

6 Silvanus died April 2.3, 175:t; .Tolm died .luly 20, 17.53; their mother died 

Sept. 9, 1753. 

7 Feb. 17, 1755. (Hopkins genealogy, p. 12). 



142 STEPHEN HOPKINS. 

the only survivors of their father's fami!\^ of nine 
children, still bearing the name. 

POLITICAL Connections. 

More than was usual with tlie averaoe citizen of 
Providence, Stephen Flopkins had, during these 
years, identified himself with the commercial, the 
educational, and the social life of the town. But he 
had by no means withdrawn himself from that politi- 
cal connection with public life which he had so strik- 
ingly developed previous to 1742.^ In 1741, just 
before his removal to Providence, he was holdino- 
the position of clerk of the Court of Common 
Pleas, of Providence County ;"~ and at the same time 
was speaker of the General Assembly,^ (being 
deputy for Scituate) ;^ and also served as town clerk 
of Scituate^ and president of the Scituate town coun- 
cil.'' These two latter positions he resigned Decem- 
ber 24, 1741 ;^ and he probably resigned his seat in 

1 See Chapter IV. 

2 See Records of the Providence County Court of Common Pleas, I. 433. 

3 K. I. Col. Records, V. 11), -,'1. 4 Ibid., V. ■^l. 
5 Beaman's " Scituate," appendix, p. 7. 

C Letter of Moses Brown to Robert Walu, 1823. 7 Ibid. 



A CITIZEN OF PROVIDENCE. 143 

the General Assembly not long after. ' But his 
name appears again on the roll of members in 
1744,2 this time as deputy from Providence, and he 
was immediately re-elected speaker. 3 It was doubt- 
less this unwillingness of the colony to relinquish its 
hold on his services which prevented his ever serv- 
ing as a member of the Providence town council, 
but, says Beaman, "no man was so often 
chosen moderator of town meetings in Providence. "^ 
As has been already seen,^ he was so constantly 
raising issues for the town council to act upon, that 
he may well have been excused from actual service 
in that body. The term of service in the General 
Assembly, which began in 1744, was continued, by 
sul)sequent re-elections, in 1746, 1747, 1748, 1749, 
1751, and 1752.'^ In 1749 he was again speaker. ^ 
These were the years of the third Governor Wanton 

1 He apptars to havt been a member at tlie October session, IMl, but not 
at the session immediately preceding the election in yiay, 1~'12. (K. I. Col. 
Records, V. 33-37, 42). At the session beginning May 4, 1~42, a " Steplien 
Hopkins '' appears among the freemen admitted. (K. I. Col. Records, V. 42) 

2 R. I. Col. Records, V. ^4. 3 Ibid., V. 85. 

4 Beaman's " Scituate," p. 10. 5 See pagesl03-10. 

(i R. I. Col. Records, V. 10(5, 214, 265, 327, 344. (Staples'* "Annals," p. 050). 

7 Ibid.. A". 200. 



144 STEI'IIKN HOrivlNS. 

and the first Governor Greene, und were eharacter- 
izcd by a party spirit sufficiently hitter, hut by no 
means to he compared with that of the next thirteen 
years. The eastern lionndary question was 
now ai)proaehing a [)artial settkuncuit. Stephen 
Hopkins had been appointed in 1741 a member of a 
committee to represent the coh)ny at the hearing 
which was to take place before connnissioners.' Some 
needed imjielus ap[)ears to have been given to the 
matter by his committees ; and by the end of the 
year 1747, the five towns- whose existence on the 
border line of Massachusetts and Rhode Island had 
for years been one of uncertainty, were fully installed 
into the functions of Rhode Island towns.^ The 
northern boundary next required attention. Various 

1 l<"(>r his coinioctiim willi thus matter, sec thf U. I. Col. llccords.'V. 15-16 
29-30, 3u'-:i:i, .■!;■-). 

a Ouinborland, Wiurcii, ISristol, 'rivcrtoii, und Little Coinptoii. 

3 The royal dt'crcc cstablishiiijv tlie new bouiuhiiy lines is (hited May 1.'8, 
ITlCi; tlic report ot'tlie Rhode Island eoiiiinissioners, ai)i)ointed in coiiseiiuence 
of the decree, is dated .Jan. fi, 17-ir.-7, (It. I. Col. Records, V. 199); tlie five 
towns received incorporation from tlie Uliode Island (ieneral Assembly, .Jan. 
27, 1710-7, (R. I. Col. Records, V. L'Ol-fi) ; they were assij^ned to their respect- 
ive counties, by vote of the (ieiuM-al Assenil)ly, in February, 171('>-7, (R. I. Col. 
Records. V. 208-9). 



A CITIZEN OF niOVIDENCE. 145 

commissions were appointed in 1748,^ 1750,2 and 
1751.3 But there seemed to be no definite point 
reached, and at the June session, 1751, the matter 
was placed^ in the hands of Stephen Hopkins and 
two others for thorough examination. They con- 
ferred with commissioners from Connecticut,'^ and in 
1752 reported^ that the "skillful artists," ^ Wood- 
ward andSaffery, who, in 1642, had said they knew 
where this line struck the Connecticut River, were 
several miles out of the way.^ 

1 K. I. Col. Records, V. 255. 2 Ibid., V. 281, 299. 

.3 Ibid., V. .322-25. 4 Ibid., V. 333. 

5 One of the Connecticut commissioners was Roger Wolcott, Jr., afterwards 
Stephen Hopkins's associate in the Albany congress. 

6 April 4, 1752. (R. I. Col. Records, V. .346-48. Bowen's " Boundary dis- 
putes of Connecticut," p. 62-fi3). 

7 What the Massachusetts government meant, says Mr. Clarence Bowen, 
"by calling these surveyors ' skillful artists,' seems a matter of conjecture." 
(Bowen's "Boundary disputes of Connecticut," p. 19). 

8 The Massachusetts government appointed as surveyors of this line in 1642, 
Nathaniel Woodward and Solomon Saffery. " They started the line," says 
Mr. Bowen, " from the point they thought was three miles to the south of the 
southernmost part of Charles river, and instead of extending the survey acrosB 
the country, they sailed round Cape Cod, and up the Connecticut River, to the 
point they supposed was in the same degree of latitude with the starting point." 
This was more than four miles too far south. They were thence sarcastl- 
caUy called "the mathematicians." (See Bowen's "Boundary disputes 
of Connecticut," p. 19, 63, and Map IV.) In this case, though Stephen 

13 



146 STEPHEN HOPKINS. 

Durins: Governor Greene's first administration > 
the war with France and Spain^ broke out. Stephen 
Hopkins's friend, Jabez Bowen, the elder, was a 
colonel in the Rhode Island line, at the time of the 
reduction of Louisburg, and shared in the glory of 
that campaign.^ After the close of this year's active 
military operations,^ Stephen Hopkius waited on Sir 

Hopkins did not personally survey it, no doubt his careful training as a 
surveyor, in his youth, served him in good stead. He was frequently 
called to put this training in practice even until "advanced in life," 
says Moses Brown. The same writer says : " To illustrate his skill, 
I will mention that I was with him about the year 1769. We were laying 
out and surveying a piece of land in Scituate for the use of our furnace, 
[Hope Furnace], when we had to pass through a very thick, shrubby 
plain. When we got through, he felt for his watch to see the time of 
day, and it was missing. It occurred to us that probably it caught by the 
bushes and was hauled from his fob. He set the same course back, and found 
the watch hanging in the bushes." (Letter to Robert Wain, 1823). 

1 1743-45. 

2 The "'War of the Austrian succession," 1744-48; known in America as 
" King George's war." 

3 " When the expedition against Louisburg was projected," says Sir Wil- 
liam Pepperrell's biographer, " Rhode Island entered heartily into it, and 
raised three companies of one hundred men each, [and] paid them more liber- 
ally than any other colony." He adds : " The troops failed of reaching Boston 
in season to embark witli I'epperrell. They, however, proceeded early in 
July, and proved a valuable reinforcement in preserving the conquest." (I'ar- 
8ons's " Life of Sir William Pepperrell, p. 135). 

4 Most of the New England troops appear to have returned in 1740. The 
reduction of Louisburg took place in 1745. 



A CITIZEN OF PROVIDENCE. 147 

William Pcpperrcll, at Boston, i at the request of the 
General Assembly, and was successful in having the 
really very creditable participation of this colony in 
the war properly placed on record. 2 During this 
period two issues of bills of credit took place, the 
second one being made the occasion of a vigorous in- 
terference by the home government. The General 
Assembly, on receiving a letter^ from the English 
secretary of state, containing inquiries as to these 
successive issues, voted to place the matter in the 
hands of a committee (Stephen Hopkins and three 
others), to make examination and report. 4 The 
committee possessed too much intelligence to pre- 
sent a defence of the practice, and their report was 
almost wholly limited to a statement of the bare 
facts. But this occasion presented a good oppor- 
tunity for the committee to emphasize the ruinous 
tendency of the course to which Rhode Island had 

1 R. I. Col. Records, V. 202. 

2 See also General Wolcott's letter in testimony of the service of the Rhode 
Island troops, (dated Nov. 15, 1745). (R. I. Col. Records, V. 155). 

3 Dated July 10, 1749. Printed in the R. I. Col. Records, V. 278-79. 

4 Their report is dated, Newport, Feb. 27, 1749-50. (Printed in R. I. Col. 
Records, V. 283-86). 



148 STEPHEN HOPKINS. 

been committing herself, and by an appeal to the 
intelligence and sense of honor of the colony to pro- 
cure the arrest of the tendency by its own action, 
withont waitino^ for the home government to act. 
That the committee did not do so may perhaps have 
been due to timidity ; perhaps also to an impression 
that their words would produce no eflect. This 
action is less excusable in Stephen Hopkins than in 
the other members, for it had alreadv been made 
clear that his influence was equal to nearly any 
emergency, where public opinion was to be shaped. 
The opportunity was lost ; and the very next year 
witnessed another of the insane issues of paper 
money by the General Assembly, to the amount of 
£25,000.^ The long suftering merchants of New- 
port, convinced that there was no farther ground for 
believing that this body would act intelligently in 
the matter, resolved to appeal to the King. This 
they did, in a petition^ dated September 4, 1750, 



1 Potter's " Bills of credit," p. 72-77. 

2 Printed in R. I. Col. Records, V. 311-13. 



A CITIZEN OF PKOVIDENCE. 149 

aud signedi by seveuty-two of their number ;— pray- 
ing that the General Assembly " may be prevented 
and efFectually restrained from making or emitting 
any more bills of credit upon loan." The appeal 
appeared to beeliectual, and a bill- passed the House 
of Commons, in 1751, prohibiting any farther issue. 
But in one sense even this beneficent interference 
came too late. The expenses of the Louisburg 
campaign, in 1745, had left all the New England 
colonies financially embarrassed ; and an appropria- 
tion of £800,000 was made by parliament in 1747,^ 
to reimburse these colonial outlays. Upon this, the 
colony of Massachusetts Bay, seizing the favorable 
moment, imposed a sufficiently heavy tax in addition, 
for this special purpose, and was able to redeem 
every one of her outstanding bills.'* There appear 

1 Among the names signed to this petition are those of Abraham Eedwood, 
Joseph Harrison, Peter Uarrison, Henry Collins, Heury Ball, John Cole, and 
George Gibbs. 

2 Potter's " Bills of credit," p. 84-86. 

3 See Sumner's " History of American currency," p. 34. 

4 This action of Massachusetts is to be credited largely to the intelligent 
exertions of Governor Thomas Hutchinson, at that time a member of the 
General Court. (Sumner's " History of American currency," p. 34). 



150 STEPHEN HOPKINS. 

to be several reasonsi why the Rhode Island colony 
did not take the same action ; but she did not take 
it, as she had abundant reason subsequently to regret. 

CONNECTION WITH THE COURTS. - 

It was in the year just mentioned (1747), that 
Stephen Hopkins, who, in 1736, became justice 
of the Court of Common Pleas of Providence 
County,^ was now made one of the assistant 
justices of the Rhode Island Superior Court."* This 
position he held only two years, but in 1751 he was 
made Chief-justice of the Superior Court. '^ This 
latter position he held at the time of his election as 
governor, in May, 1755.*" First and last, Stephen 

1 See Potter's " Bills of credit," (p. (!7), where it is pointed out that Rhode 
Island at this time received from the honu' government only £7,800, out of her 
share of the funds, amounting to £16,407; and that a tax adequate to discharge 
the obligations at this time " would have amounted to nearly £14 per capita." 

2 Compare Appendix F. 

.'( See Records of the Providence County Court of Common Pleas, I. 163. 

4 Records, (Mss.) of K. I. Superior Court, I. 1. 

6 Ibid., I. 81. 

6 Governor Hopkins, no doubt, at once resigned the office of Chiefjustice, 
on assuming the executive chair; for Francis Willet was elected Chief-justice 
at the May session of the General Assembly in 1755. ("Acts and resolves," May, 
1755, p. 8). But owing to the failure, probably, of Mr. Willet to qualify, a new 
election took place at the August session of the General Assembly in the same 



A CITIZEN OF PROVIDENCE. 151 

Hopkins had considerable to do with the courts, and 
with hiwsiiits ; but he had never " studied law," in 
the sense in which this language is used of an edu- 
cated lawyer of our day. It is therefore at first 
sight somewhat singular that he should have gradu- 
ally risen to the highest attainable position in this 
as well as in each one of the other lines of advance- 
ment open to him. The truth is, that until long 
after this date, (to quote from Chief-justice Durfee), 
"the regular lawyers were few, and must have been 
imperfectly trained and slenderly equipped." i An 
elective judiciary was the established practice in this 
colony ; and in the annual choice of judges the pref- 
erences of the citizens lighted now on some active 
farmer, now on some tradesman who had risen to 



year, (1755), at which the Assembly chose "His Honor the Governor Chief- 
justice of the Superior Court of Judicature," etc., etc. ("Acts and resolves," 
August, 1755, p. 36; see also p. 44). Governor Hopkins served under this 
election from August, 1755, to May, 1756, when John Gardner was elected 
his successor. ("Acts and resolves," May, 1750, p. 7). Thiscertainly very unusual 
occurrence is pronounced by Arnold "a union of the highest executive and 
judicial powers in the colony, as rare as it would, at this day, be thought 
dangerous. It attests the confidence of tlie people in his integrity and 
nncommon mental attainments." (Arnold's " Rhode Island," IT. iy4). 
1 Durfee's " Gleanings from the judicial history of Rhode Island," p. 66. 



152 



STEPHEN HOPKINS. 



mercantile prominence in the Town Street, — and at 
rare intervals, on some thoroughly equipped lawyer, 
like William Ellery or David Howell. The wonder 
is that these annual choices of the General Assem- 
bly resulted so well. "For the ordinary run of 
judicial business," Judge Durfee remarks, "honesty, 
good sense, diligence, and fair-mindedness," were 
"tolerable substitutes for professional learning." ^ 
From this point of view, Stephen Hopkins can easily 
be believed to be a satisfactory public officer. 
" Though not a lawyer," says Judge Durfee, he " was 
doubtless a good judge."- Little remains to throw 
light on the cases^ which came up before him for deci- 
sion. The one best known is the curious case of Maw- 
uey vs. Peirce,4 in 1752, in which the "omnipotent"^ 
General Assembly pronounced*' upon the validity of 
the court's rulings, as it assumed to do thirty-four 
years later in the case of Trevett vs. Weeden,^ and 

1 Durfee's " Gleanings from the judicial history of Khode Island," p. 91. 

2 Ibid., p. 93. 

Z For the case of Angell vs. Belknap, sec Appendix F. 

•1 See Records (Mss.) of the K. I. Superior Court, I. 86, 92, 9^100, 106. 

5 See Arnold's " Rhode Island," II. 520. 

6 K. I. Col. Records, V. 358-59. 

7 Arnold's " Rhode Island," II. 526-28. 



A CITIZEN OF PROVIDENCE. 153 

as it repeatedly claimed the right to do even into 
the present century.^ It was during Stephen Hop- 
kins's first chief-justiceship, that suitable court 
houses^ were provided at East Greenwich and 
Kingston, for the accomodation of the court. 3 

HIS INFLUENCE. 

The thirteen years daring which Stephen Hopkins 
had now been a citizen of Providence,^ had been 
years of the closest application and unremitting 
attention to public business. It was impossible that 

1 Durfee's " Gleanings from the judicial liistory of Hhode Island," p. 61-65. 

2 K. I. Col. Records, V. 349-50. (Arnold's " Rhode Island," II. 185). 

3 The following memorandum shows the official connection of Stephen 
Hopkins with Rhode Island courts during his life. »Justice of the Inferior 
Court of Common Pleas for Providence County, 1736-40, (Records, C. C. P., 
I. 163,201,224,256,277, 303, 319, 341, 370, 384); ^Clerk of the same, 1741-44, 
(Records, C. C. P., I. 433, 485, 529, 605; II. 1, 31, 93, 169, 217) ; 'Clerk of the 
same, 1746, (Records, C. C. P., H. 363) ; Assistant-justice of the Superior 
Court of Judicature of Rliode Island, 1747-49, (Records, R. I. Superior Court, 
I., 1, 22; R. I. Manual 1882-83, p. 134); Chief-justice of the same, 1751-55, 
(Rec'ordl, R. I. Superior Court, 1.81, 87,94, 101, 109, 116, 127, 137); Chief- 
justice of the same, 1755-56, (Records, R. I. Superior Court, I. 149, 163) ; 
Chief-justiceofthesame, 1770-70, (Records, R. I. Superior Court, II. 36,53, 
67,90, 125, 155,200, 205, .323). Metcalf Bowler does not appear to have suc- 
ceeded him until March, 1776. He also acted as justice of the peace, from 1736. 
(See Appendix F). 

4 For his later connection with town interests, see Chapters IX, XI. 



154 STEPHEN HOPKINS. 

such a citizen should fail to make his personality, 
his iuflueuce, and his effprts felt ; and as a conse- 
quence, neither the town of Providence nor the col- 
ony of Rhode Island was the same community at 
the end of this period as at the beginning. The 
town was wealthier, more enterprising, more influ- 
ential ; the colony was more united, more aggressive, 
more disposed to defend and develop its commer- 
cial facilities. The new issues which were now 
forming, and which are to be considered in subse- 
quent chapters grew in part out of this fact. The 
growth of Providence, at first unnoticed and dis- 
missed from attention, was now seen to be giving 
Newport a rival in the internal control of the colony ; 
and this fact soon made itself manifest in Rhode Is- 
land politics.! The commercial growth of this, 
with other American colonies, likewise, when once 
recognized by the home government, led to the 
more literal and stringent enforcement of those 
repressive measures which precipitated the war, 
and eventually resulted in the independence of the 
colonies.- 

1 See Chapter VII. 2 See Chapter VIII. 



I 



CHAPTER VI. 

THE STATESMANSHIP OF THE ALBANY CONGRESS. 

There were few, doubtless, among the industrious 
burghers of that quaint old town in which the Al- 
bany congress of 1754 held its three weeks' ses- 
sion, ^ who looked upon it as anything but one more 
interview with the Indian chiefs whose favor 
it was constantly necessary to secure. Nor was it 
until within the present century that this conference 
was seen to have been a most important step in the 
gradual progress towards a national government on 
this continent. 

This progress was anything but a simple and un in- 
volved tendency. There are four political ideas 
which are at once seen to underlie the successive 
movements of the eighteenth century ; — Local self- 
government ; Union ; Independence ; Nationality. 

1 It assembled June 19, 1754; and was dissolved July 11, 1754. 



156 STEPHEN HOPKINS. 

Yet any attempt to treat these tendencies otherwise 
than as interlacing with each other ; and as now 
coming to the front in this shape, now in that, is 
met with insurmountable difficulties. 

The tendency to local self-government was, no 
doubt, the earliest to manifest itself. It was inherent 
in the very charters which furnished the basis of 
colonial organization; and if it had not been, it 
would have been evolved from the essential spirit of 
the asserted rights of the colonists, as Englishmen. 
Independence, however, particularly in the form 
into which the idea finally developed, was not in the 
letter of the colonial charters ; nor was this stage 
reached until after a century and a half of political 
a""itation. Long before this was attained, the idea 
of union had become one of the most familiar and 
significant, in the thought and discussion of the col- 
onists- 
More than one scheme of uuioni is to be found, 
from which the veriest suggestion of independence is 
conspicuously absent. Yet it was not until inde- 

1 For a reference to some of these schemes, see Appendix G. 



8TATESMAXSHIP OF THE ALBANY CONGRESS. 157 

pendence had boon secured, that the problem of 
union became in truth a vital one ; and a most per- 
plexing question of method and detail. And with 
this last stage of progress came, as the latest and the 
consummate development of this new world political 
growth, the nationality of the American people ; — a 
nationality in which, as a whole, each subordinate 
centre of local self-government finds its harmonious 
jidjustment. 

From the nature of the case, the current at first 
set most strongly away from the centralizing tenden- 
cies, and in the direction of isolation, and the most 
pronounced self-government. There is of course a 
difference in degree to be noticed, in comparing one 
colony with another ; yet in general this was true of 
all. Nowhere, however, was it more completely the 
case from the first ; and nowhere did the tendency 
continue longer, than in Rhode Island. Self-govern- 
ment in fact could safely be pronounced the essen- 
tial principle in its p(^litical theory and practice. 
When, at some future time, the Rhode Island town 
o-overnmants of the seventeenth century shall receive 



lo8 STEPHEN HOPKINS, 

the cotnpreheiisive stud}' which so fascinating a field 
invites, it will he found that they were scarcely less 
than little "states," in the functions which they 
exercised ;' and that the successive steps hy which 
they were brought to unite in the first General As- 
sembly in 1647,2 and later to accept the more rigid 
restraints of the charter of l()i33,-' ma}- as truly be 
described as concessions ''extorted from the ffrind- 
ing necessit}^ of a reluctant" people, ^ as in the case 
of the great political event^ of which these words of 
John Quincy Adams were written. 

The appearance and re-appearance of this early 
trait has already been noted in these pages. ^ It was 
manifested in the long neglect of communication be- 
tween this colony and its neijilibors ; in the failure to 
open highways into the adjoining colonies; in the 

1 Some of tiicse may be studied (Vom the record of tlieir proceedinjjs, iu 
R. I. Col. Records, I. 1-HO. 

2 See the late Judge Stiiplos's pampldet ou " Tlie proceedings of tlie first 
General Assembl)," witli notes historical and explanatory. 1847. 

.•5 See Arnold's " Rhode Island," I. 2iSu. 

4 Address of John Qiiincy Adams, on " Tlie jubilee of the constitution," 
1839, p. 55. 

5 The adoptiou of the United States coustitution. 
« See pages 2. 110-12. 



STATESMANSHIP OF THE ALBANY CONGKESS. 159 

long and surprising absence of commerce, for which 
this Bay was so perfectly adapted ; in the bitterness 
with which the early generations nursed their remem- 
brance of w^rongs and injuries received from Massa- 
chusetts and Connecticut; in the fact that "the old 
townsmen," to quote from Mr. Dorr, ''gave no cor- 
dial welcome to emigrants, and ottered them no in- 
vitation by the establishment of schools, or other 
means of improvement." i 

Yet the momentum of nature was too strong for 
the permanent continuance of even these deep-rooted 
tendencies and sentiments. Even before Stephen 
Hopkins entered on public life,'-^ these barriers were 
beorinnino- to come down. Commercial connections^ 
were, of course, a most important factor in this 
transformation. The natural market which such a 



1 Dorr's " Providence," p. KiS. 

2 1731. 

3 The position of this port, at the head of navigation, with a productive 
outlying neighborhood depending on it for supplies, not only in Rhode Island, 
but outside the colony limits, lying moreover, in the direct path between the 
two constantly growing commercial centres, Boston and New York, on the 
route over which the King's post was obliged fo pass, is of significance in this 
connection. 



160 STEPHEN HOPKINS. 

town as Providence afforded, formed cue of the in- 
termediate steps by vvhicli it was transformed from 
an isolated, agricultural community to a trading 
town, and later to a commercial port and manufac- 
turing centre. When caro'oes beo-an to be inter- 
changed with distant seaports ; when outside mer- 
chandise was introduced, — outside customs, outside 
ideas, and outside visitors, — there came also per- 
manent settlers, whose fathers and grandfathers were 
not Rhode Island men, but whose sons and grand- 
sons were to have a hand in modifying some of the 
fundamental ideas of the Rhode Ishmd colony.^ 

There can bo no doubt, also, that the very bound- 
ary disputes," whose existence and successive settle- 
ment would a[)pear to have constituted an almost 
ever-present source of diiHculty, had no unimportant 

1 A comparison of the names most largely represented in the directories of 
Providence and Newport of to-day or of those connected with the business and 
society of both those cities, with the early records, will show that there 
are many such "representative names" which were not " llliode Island 
names " earlier tliau IHO, and which are borne by families originally identi- 
fied with Windham County, Connecticut, Worcester County, ^Massachusetts , 
Norfolk County, Massaeiiusetts, or some one of tlie counties of the "Old 
Colony." 

2 See pages ?!, 71-ra. 



STATf:SMANSHIP OF THK ALBANY CONGRESS. 101 

influence in nibbing off some of the projecting cor- 
ners of Rhode Island individualism. And when in 
1747 the hist important one was settled, and the five 
townsi on the eastern border of the colony were defi- 
nitely added to its territory, there was then intro- 
duced into Rhode Island society, and into its politi- 
cal organization, a population which for more than a 
century had been under the jurisdiction of the Massa- 
chusetts and Plymouth governments, — identified 
with the interests, the history, and the traditions of 
Massachusetts.'^ This new element has not failed to 
contribute its share of noteworthy and influential 
characters to Rhode Island history, both in that cen- 
tury, and in our own time.^ It is sufficient to cite 

1 Cuniberlaiid, Warren, Bristol, Tiverton, iiiitl Little Coiiipton. A sixtli 
town, Barriugton, was in 1770 formed from the territory of Warren. See p. 144 . 

2 lu fact, the union of the characteristics of botli colonies in these border 
towns seems to have produced a somewhat felicitous result. A sentiment 
which can be heartily approved is that of Colonel Thomas Wentworth Higgin- 
lon, at Bristol in 1880. ("Celebration of the two-hundredth anniversary of 
Bristol," p. 75). 

3 For instance, the late Professor Diman, certainly the most distinguished 
historical scholar that the state has produced; the late Hon. Thomas A- 
Jenckes, whose name is associated with more than one noteworthy instance 
of constructive statesmanship; and the late Chief-justice Durfee of the 
.Supreme Court of Rhode Island, whose son now occupies the same position 
ou the bench. 



162 STEPHEN HOPKIXS. 

William Bradford, i Benjamin I^ourne,^ and James 
Manning,*^ among Stephen Hopkins's contemporaries. 
And when the stress of British hostilities,'* of paper- 
money madness,'"' and of opposition to the constitu- 
tion,^ called for the best energies and the I)est intel- 
ligence of Rhode Island men, no towns were more 
steadfast in the defence of correct principles than 
were these. 

1 He was boru ut I'lyrapton, nyar Plymouth, was a descendant iu the fifth 
generation of Governor Bradford, whose name he bore, and became a resident 
of Bristol about 1758. He was deputy governor, 177.5-78, and P^nited State.s 
Senator, 1703-07. 

2 He was a native of Bristol, a graduate from Harvard College in the class 
of 1775; served in one of the Rhode Island regiments during the war, and was 
elected the first representative in congress from Rhode Island, 1700. His 
name is found iu the "Acts and resolves," with the spelling, "Bonrn," like 
that of the present governor of the state. (1883-84). 

3 He was a native of New Jersey, and a Princeton graduate, but a resident 
of Warren, K. I., from 1704 to 1770, being identified with Rhode Island College 
as its head, from the very first, and president until his death in 1791. See his 
" Life," by R. A. Guild. 

4 See Cowell's " Spirit of '7(5 in Rhode Island." One of the most distin- 
guished names of the late civil war also — that of the late Major General Burn- 
side,— belongs to one of these towns (Bristol), as that of an adopted citizen, 
though not as a native. 

5 A record of the votes of the towns on these two important questions 
shows the intelligent position generally taken by these. five towns. See Ar- 
nold's "Rhode Island," II. 520; Staples's "Rhode Island in the Continental 
Congress," p. 580, 1)27; 3Iunro's " History of Bristol," p. •245-4li. 



STATESMANSHIP OF THE ALBANY CONGRESS. 163 

Undoubtedly, also, the gradual establishment in 
Newport !Uid Providence, of institutions such as the 
printing press; tlie post-office ;^ the custom-house,'^ 
and the insurance agencies ;^ gava a very appreciable 
impetus to this liberalizing tendency. Even more 
is to be said for the lil)rarics#of Newport and Prov- 
idence, which at once laid open to those who used 
them a world of thought and activity, by no means 
circumscribed by the narrow limits of the colony. 
And the successive movements towards a system of 
public education,-^ though long-delayed, may be 
considered to have broken down the last barrier of 

is(jlation. 

Another such tendency may be traced to what, 
like the boundary disputes, was apparently an evil 
and only an evil, — the successive wars with the 
European enemies of Great Britain. These rendered 
necessary among the American colonies constant 
association for military defence. Indian foes there 
had been, from the beginning, but since 1689 the 

1 At Providence so early as 17o8. 2 At Xcwporf, lOSl. 

3 At Providence so early as 17o(;. See page 11~. 

4 Redwood Library, 1~4~; Providence Library so early as i:.)4. 

5 From 17C7. 



164 STEPHEN HOPKIxXS. 

ever-active aggressions of the French on this conti- 
nent had complicated the situation. 

The English colonics were a mere crust, along the 
Atlantic coast, under the constant, steady pressure 
of these allied foes. Yet the same pressure which 
crowded them thus tH the seaboard served also to 
crowd them into closer connection with each other. 
So early as 1643, four New England colonies were 
forced to take united action for protection against 
their foes ; and the "New England confederacy "' was 
formed. King Philip's war made heavy demands 
upon their energies, and it was ^vithin the limits of 
Khode Island, itself not a member of the confederacy, 
that the decisive campaign- occurred. In 1703 the 
assistance of this colony in furnishing troops was 
asked for in behalf of Massachusetts and New York. 3 
The war of 1744-48 called out the utmost available 
force of all the New^ England colonies, and Rhode 
Island troops bore a distinguished part in the Louis- 

1 Its proceedings are comprised in Hazard's " Historical collections," vol- 
ume 2. 

2 The Narragansett Swamp fight, Dec. 19, 1075. Arnold's " Rhode Island," 
I. 403-6. 

3 Arnold's '• Shode Island," II. 13. . 



STATESMANSHIP OF THE ALBANY CONGKESS. 165 

burg campaign.^ The " Seven years' war,""' also, 
M'hich was one of the episodes of Stephen Hopkins's 
governorsiiip, made constant demands on the 
resources and military spirit of Rhode IsUmders. In 
Khode Island, moreover, the commercial instinct had 
now become so fully developed, though so late in 
manifesting itself, that the service of its citizens was 
quite as frequently and as f()rcil)ly rendered on the 
seas as on the land.^ 

From 1703 onward, no French, nor Spanish, nor 
Indian foe longer molested the colonies. But the 
colonists had formed the habit of acting together. 
They possessed officers and men, trained in the act- 
ual experiences of war. The foundation had been 
laid, unwittingly, so far as the home government 

1 Not at the siege itself, but as a most " valuable reinforcement in preserv- 
ing the conquest." (Parsons's "Sir William I'epperrell," p. i;!5). 

2 Referred to in many colonial records as " The Old Frencli war." 

3 For the achievements of the privateer Tartar, see Sheffield's address on 
"The privateersmen of Newport," p. 1.V17. " While Louisburg," he says, 
"was besieged by the ships of Sir Peter Warren in front, and by the army of 
Sir William Pepperrel in the rear," nine luuidred French and Indians under 
command of M. Marin, were crossing the Bay of Fnndy as reinforcements, and 
were successfully repulsed by the Tartar. " This expedition " of the Tartar, 
says Sheffield, " probably decided tlie fate of Louisburg." (p. 1(5, 17). 



166 STEPHEN HOPKINS. 

was concerned, which was to serve as a basis for the 
"continental" army of 1775, under the command of 
that same Colonel Washington, whose military ex- 
perience had been acquired in Braddock's campaign, 
in 1755 ; in the support of which, moreover, Stephen 
Hopkins was to tind pre-eminently serviceable that 
familiarity with military organization which the 
duties of his administration' had rendered necessary 
during the "Seven years' war." 

But military experience was not the only thing 
for which the colonists were indebted to the danger 
from French aggressions. To this same source they 
owed the institution known as the " congress of dele- 
gates." This political agency, regarded by the home 
government with complacency and even approval, 
so long as it served merely for local military defence, 
became at last the medium throiio-h which were 
reached successively, remonstrance against measures 
touching political rights, determined resistance to 
those measures, and finally, political independence. 

The New England confederacy of 1643 to 1686, 
as has been already indicated, ^ did not include 

1 See Chapiers VII., X., XI. 2 See p. C. 



STATESMANSHIP OF THE ALBANY CONGRESS. 167 

Rhode TsUind. An ill-considered letter of William 
Coddington, applying for admission in 1648, ^ bronght 
onl}^ a refusal from the commissioners. Whatever 
sentiment of union might have been developing in 
Rhode Island, either at Newport or Providence, was 
very effectually extinguished by this action. Yet 
the existence of this confederacy for forty years was 
a most important and significant fact in American 
political development; and there is no doubt that it 
prepared the way^ for that intensity of sentiment in 
favor of colonial union and co-operation which, in 
the next century, was strong enough to sweep Rhode 
Island along also. 

Rhode Island was not, however, represented in 
the earliest of the nine congresses^ which preceded 
that of 1754. In some instances, no doubt, she was 
not invited.^ In others, the importance of the prin- 

1 Printed in Uazard's " Historical collections," II. 99-100. 

2 See Frotliiugham's " Rise of the republic," p. 72. 

3 lOS-1, lOO.'?, 1001, 1709, 1711, 1722, 1741, 1748, 1751. See Frothingham's "Rise 
of the republic," p. 118-20. There were also "interviews of governors," of 
less importance than these, as for instance in 1740 and 1747. 

4 The invitation was certainly received in 1746 and 1747. (R. I. Col. Rec- 
ordi, v. 157, 108-69,219}. 



168 STEPHEN HOPKINS. 

eiple had not impressed itself on the minds of her 
public men. Indeed it was not until Stephen Hop- 
kins's influence had already become a power in the 
colony that Rhode Island delegates were chosen, in 
1740, ]754, 1755, 1757, and 1758.i No reported 
utterance of his, earlier than the year 1755, 2 in re- 
lation to this system of congresses, remains. The 
probability, however, that the representation of 
Rhode Island in the first four of these is to be con- 
nected with his active influence, is strengthened not 
only by the lact that in each of these instances the 
General Assembly chose him as one of the dele- 
gates -f^ — but also l)y the f:ict that both by correspond- 
ence and l)y personal intercourse lie had by this 
time laid the foundations of that wide acquaintance 
in all the colonies which subse(juently served him so 

1 H. I. Col. Keconls, V. 108-70, :?S4-S<J, MV-i-::,; VI. 10-11, 13, 117-19; 
GammeH's " Suiimel Ward,'' p. 2.51-54. Tlie delegates were, in 1746, Stephen 
Hopkins aiiiM^'illiaui iCUeiy: in 17o4, Stephen Hopkins and Martin Howard, 
Jr.; in 17,55, Stephen Hopkins and Daniel Updike; in 1757, Stephen Hopkins, 
.fames Honynian, and George Brown: in 17,")S, William Greene, .John 
Andrews, and Sanuiel Ward. 

2 His pamphlet, " A true representation of tlie plan Ibrmed at Albany for 
uniting all the British nortiii>ru colonies." Providence, 17.)5. 

3 See note 4. 



STATESMANSHir OF THE ALBANY CONGRESS. 169 

well as M member of the committee of correspond- 
ence.^ He was therefore, even at this time, a man 
of wider ontlook ami less provincial spirit than the 
o-reat body of his associates. 

An examination of the specified purposes for which 
these successive congresses were called^ shows that 
in only one instance, — that of 1754, — was a plan of 
union mentioned or hinted at. In all the other 
cases, the simple fact of danger from French or 
Indian hostilities is cited as the occasion of conven- 
ing- the deleofates. That element, in fact, character- 
ized the congress of 1754, in common with the 
others. The last preceding congresses, (those of 
1748 and 1751), had found the threatened defection 
of the Six Nations to be a cause for serious appre- 
hension.^ That also was a no less distinct cause of 
solicitude in the debates of the All)any congress." 

1 See Chapter VIII. 

•i A summarized record of their proceedings is given in Frotiiingham's 
" Rise of the republic," p. 118-20. 

3 See Frothingham's "Rise of the republic," p. 110-20. 

4 It probably was more or less in view tliroughout all the discussion. See 
the official record of the projoelings of the convention. There is an original 

15 



170 <TKPHKN HOPKINS. 

But SO early as the previous August, the Earl of 
HolJernesse' had written- to Governor Greene, indi- 
cating with somewhat unwonted liberality a system 
of co-operation among the colonies : and this was 
followed by a letter^ from another of His Majesty's 
secretaries." which, althouofh it failed to arrive until 
after the congress,^ is significant as showing that the 
home sovernment had iirst tiien. — (U- thouirht it had, 
— the idea uf co-operation on its mind. And while 
these expressions of their wishes were chiefly in the 



ctr:;:;-c Ci:' .: t^ij :^<:c-': in mauu^crij:, in the oSct of the Secretary- of 
State of Ehoce I-lanii. It i- dedared to be "A true copy. Examined by me, 
Peter Wraxall." 

1 One of the Secretaries of State for tlie cc>loniei. 

■2 Printed in E. I. Col. Records, V. 3y:. 

3 Printed in E. I. Col. Record-^, V. :^>r-3S. 

i Froia Sir Thosaas Robinson. It vras this same Sir Thomas Eobinson 
who, thirteen years before, had been pis«^i in a most embarrassing situation 
at Strthleii in I'russia, at an audience granted him by Frederick the Great, as 
the diplomatic representative of Euglai.d. The interview is picturesquely and 
dramatically dcscribe«l by the latest historian of Frederick and JIaria Theresa, 
the Due de Broglie. " It was the evil chance," he says, •' of the unlatky 
diplomatist, to find himself between two imperious natures." '•' Fi-ederick II. 
aid iiaria Theresa," ch. 4,. 

5 It was written during the sesnon of the congress. .July o, 1754. ;R. I. 
Col. Reco-'ls, V. .3S7-96; . 



STATESMANSHIP OF THK ALBANY CONGRESS. 171 

form of 51 "circLihir letter," 1 forwarded to all the 
colonial governors at the sa\ne time, the Lords of 
tnide,-2 ill letters to those more immediately in their 
confidence, 3 named more specifically as one of the 
objects of the ct)ngress, " to enter into articles of 
union and confederation with each other.""' Nor 
should it be overlooked, moreover, that the congress 
itself was to be a body of delegates, chosen by the 
respective colonial legislatures, on the basis of 
representation.' 

Here, certainly, was a plan marked out, which 
must have appeared an intinitely suggestive one to 
any American who had looked far enough into the 
future to forecast and calculate the American devel- 
opment which was possil>le. One such American 
there was, at least : and he had been elected a mem- 

1 As appears bv the Earl of Holderne*>es sratement. ;K. I- Col. Records. 

V. 397). 

2 The fail title of thi^ body WA< "Tae Righ: Hoaorabie the Lords of the 

committee of trade and plantations." 

3 Lieateaant -governor DeLancey. of New York, vras in more d-irect com- 
municatioa with the hoTie gorernm9a: thia the other colonial officials. He 
also took occasion to stir up the other colonies. See his letters of March 19 . 
and April 22, 1751. in R. I. Col. Records, V. 3S5-86, 3SS-64. 

5 gee Frothingham? '■ Rise of the republic,"' p. 152- 



172 STEPHEN HOPKINS. 

her of this congress. Beiijanriii Franklin had come 
to Alhany^ with a specific phm in his pocket, for 
secnring the " union and confederation " thns hinted 
at. This was an idea which had hiin developing in 
his mind for months,- oratherino- siiojgestiveness and 
clearness ; and the appearance of it in the semi-official 
recommendation of the home government must have 
almost startled him with its appositeness to his own 
thoughts. He had advocated it, both by direct 
argument and by indirect implication, in his news- 
paper at Philadelphia,"^ and had freely talked of de- 
tails (jf the plan to his friends at New York,** on his 
way to the congress. 

1 He was one of the delegates from Pennsylvania. 

2 "There are evidences," says Sparks, "that Franklin's thoughts had 
been for some time turned to a union of the colonies." (Note in Franklin's 
" Works," III. 25). Mr. Bancroft prints, (" History of the United States," I V- 
91-92, ed. of 1^52), an anonymous letter, which he believes to have been Frank- 
lin's, advocating " a voluntary union, entered into by the colonies themselves," 

(Letter of March, 1752). 

3 The Pennxylvaiihi Gazette. It was in this paper that he had published only 
a month earlier, (May '.», 1754), the article in wliieh he introduced the wood- 
cut "Join or die," (tlie tigure of a snake, cut into thirteen pieces), which be- 
came a very eftective device, ten years later. This same article forcibly 
pointed out " the very great advantage of being under one direction, with one 
council, and one purse." 

4 Lieutenant-governor Colden; Archibald Kennedy, who in a pamphlet. 



STATESMANSHIP OF THE ALBANY CONGRESS. 173 

When the nicnibers assembled at the Court House 
in Albany on the U)th of June,' it was found that 
Penns\'lvania was not alone in appointing a dis- 
tinguished citizen to represent her. On the roll 
of the eongress were the names of Lieutenant- 
governor De Laneey,^ of New York, who presided ; 
and from the same province William Smith, the his- 
torian,^ and the future Sir William Johnson,^ not 
yet made a baronet. From the proprietary provinces 
of Pennsylvania and Maryland were the well known 
officials, John Penii, grandson of the founder ;^ Rich- 

published in ir.Vi, had proposed a sclieiiu' of iiniou, (Frothiugliani's " Rise of 
the republic," p. 116) ; and Mr. James Alexander. (Bigelow's "Benjamin 
P'ranklin," I. o03). See also Sparks's " Works of Beiyainin Franklin," (III. 
27-32), lor some of their suggestions. 

1 The congress was called for Die 14th of .lime iLetter of UeLaucey, in 
K. I. Col. Records, V. .386), but it did not convene until the l'.)th. 

2 See Sabine's "American loyalists," (Ed. of 18(54), I. 3()~-70. 

3 His account of the congress is in his " History of the late province of 
New York," [1608-1762], II. 219-25. Besides Stephen Hopkins (and Franklin 
in his "Autobiography"), Hutchinson is the only other member of the con- 
gress who has left in print any account of its proceedings. (See Hutchinson's 
" Massachusetts Bay," III. 19-23). Hopkins's account is much the fullest, 

4 See the " Life of Sir William .lohnson," by W. L. Stone. (Albany, 1865) . 

5 He became governor of Pennsylvania in 1763. See Sabine's "American 
loyalists," II. 150-64. 



174 STEPHEN HOPKINS. 

arc! Peters ;i and Benjamin Tasker.2 From the 
province of New Hampshire were her fntnre gov- 
ernor, Meshech Weare,^ and Theodore Atkinson ;"* 
and from the province of Massachusetts Bay , the 
late Lieutenant-governor, Thomas Hutchinson, 
Colonel John Chandler, of Worcester, 5 and Oliver 
Partrido-e,*^ a man of commandino; influence in west- 
ern Massachusetts." Lastly, the two colonies'^ which 
had so tenaciously preserved their charter govern- 
ments through the vicissitudes of more than a cen- 
tury, — Connecticut and Rhode Island, — had acceded 
to the repeated solicitations of the home govern- 
ment, ^ and with unfeigned reluctance, we may he 

1 Secretary of state of Pennsylvania. 

2 Of JIarylanel. He Iiad, says Frothinsliam, "a high legal reputation." 
(" Rise of the republic,", p. 1.3S). 

3 1776-84. 4 At that time Chief-justice. 

5 The second of three judges of the name, in three successive generations. 
He was judge of the Worcester County Court of Common Pleas, 1754-(V-', and 
served as " special justice of the Massachusetts Superior Court of Judicature," 
1756. (Whitmore's " Massachusetts civil list," p. 118, 73). 

Ci He was also a member of the stamp-act congress of ]7rp5. 

7 For the complete list of delegates, sec Appendix H. 

8 Tile only two. No other colony had been in possession of a charter since 
1684; although two, (Pennsylvania and Georgia), were governed as provinces 
under charters, with very restricted powers. 

9 For something bordering on a threat, see a letter of Governor Shirley in 
1747, (printed in E. I. Col. Records, V. 235). 



STATESMANSHIP OF THK ALBANY CONGRESS. 175 

sure, li;i(l sent iis represciitutives men of such wide 
experieuce in their colonial concerns, as Roger VVol- 
cott, Jr.,' and Stephen Hoi)kins. " America," says 
Mr. Bancroft, -2 "had never seen an assembly so vener- 
able tor thi! slates that were represented, or for the 
o-reat and able men who composed it." They were 
detained in this hospital)le old Dutch town for more 
than three weeks, and it is l)y no means to be sup- 
posed that the seventeen stated sessions of the con- 
gress embodied all the discussion which the occasion 
called forth. There wei'e, no doubt, amidst the 
social tea-drinkings, or the frequent tete-a-tetes of 
these members from distant colonies, much quiet 
discussion, much earnest argument, much determined 
canvassing of the methods and details of the plans of 
union. For it was found that Franklin was not the 

1 Ue was at this time a justice of tlie Superior Court. It will be reniein- 
bored that he had been associated with Stephen Hopkins in the correction of 
tlie Woodw.ird and Saffery boundary line, two years before, (see page 145) . 
His father was a distinguished general in the Louisbtirg campaign, (see a let- 
ter from him in R. I. Col. Records, V. 155). His brother, Oliver Wolcott, was 
a signer of the Declaration of Independence, and his no less distinguished 
nephew, Oliver Wolcott, Jr., was Secretary of the U. S. Treasury, 1795-1801. 

2 "History of the United States," IV. 121-22. See also Hutchinson's 
'• Massachusetts Bay," (III. 20), which pronounces it " an assembly the most 
deserving of respect of any which had been convened in America." 



176 STEPHEN HOPKINS. 

only member who had <i phiu to offer, ^ and it was 
the superior merit of his which caused it to be accept- 
ed by the vote of the congress. That there was a 
strong: sentiment existiniT amons: some of the mem- 
bers against the supposed tendency of such a plan 
was soon found to be the case ; and as will he 
seen on reflection to be natural, this sentiment was 
most mjirked in the case of such colonies as had 
charter governments. 

To understand the position of Rhode Island, for 
instance, as related to this movement in the direc- 
tion of union, it is absolutely necessary to remember 
that, side by side with this, another tendency had 
been developing itself, which was destined in the 
years from 1764 to 1774 to be the grievance ui)per- 
most in the minds of the colonists. This Avas the 
start which the home government was now taking, 
in enforcing the most objectionable of the commer- 
cial regulations.'^ In fact this had already begun. 
The strictly commercial colonies like Rhode Island 

1 "It then appeared," says Franklin, "that several of the commissioners 
had form'd plans of the same kind." (Bigelow's " Franklin," I. 30s). 

2 See Chapter VIIT. 



STATESJIANSHIP OF TIIK ALBANY CO^JgKKSS. 177 

were of course the tirst to feel the effects of it, uiul 
to realize how it was destined to modify and perhaps 
undermine the status of their charter governments. 
Any one who will look through the correspondence 
which since 1748 had passed between Governor 
Greene of Rhode Island and the home government, i 
will not have much difficulty in seeing that with each 
new proposition and suggestion from that quarter, 
he and those who from their official and social con- 
nection with him through many years, hatl come to 
think as he did, must have become more and more 
thoroughly alarmed and distrustful. It is easy now 
to say that a critical examination of the plan of union 
upon which the Albmy congress reported favorably, 
reveals nothing which can be construed as impairing 
the colonial charters.- While that is perfectly true, 
it is also certain that their minds were in no condition 

1 i;. I. Col. Uecords, V. 257-5'.), 27S-7i>, ol3-lli, 350-50, 359-00, 390-98. (lu 
some instances. Governor (ireene's letters are to the colony's age)it in London 
requesting him to act for the colony). 

2 " I^ach colony," the " plan " distinctly stated, was to " retain its present 
constitution, except in the particulars" thereafter named. It is evident that 
the people in each colony would have precisely as important rights under this 
plan as formerly. 



178 STEPHEN HOPKINS. 

tor a critical oxaiiiination. It was their misfortune 
that they wore unable to look at the subject with 
that breadth of vision which took in all its bearings. 
Indeed there was now transferred^ to this ominously 
regarded idea of "union," ail that bitterly narrow 
spirit in the colony which up to this time had ex- 
pended itself upon the attempts to introduce com- 
munication with the neighborins: colonies for trade 
and commerce. The war for independence, while it 
smothered this feeling, did not extinguish it, and it 
is the self-same spirit which llamed up in a final, yet 
intensely fierce blaze, thirty-five years later, on the 
question of adopting the United States constitution.'^ 
In Connecticut there was in 1754 a similar jealousys 
of an}^ movement affecting the charter (though it 

1 Compare Arnokl's " Rhode Island," II. H»l. 

2 See Staples's " Rhode Ishmd iu tlie Continental Congress." 

3 " The conunissioners ti-om Connecticut," says Trumbull, " were wlioUy 
opposed to the plan. Tliey imagined that it was dangerous to the liberties of 
the cplonies." (Trnmbnll's " Uistory of'Connecticut," II. .355). See also the 
statement of " Kei^ous " published by the General Assembly of Connecticut; 
(reprinted in IMass. Hist. Soc. Collections, 1st series, VII. 210-14). The Con- 
necticut members, he.-ides Wolcott, Avere EHsha Williams, rector of Yale 
College, ir2f.-.':!t, and ^^'illiam I'itkin, at this time Cliirfjustire of the colony. 



STATESMANSHll' OF THE ALBANY CONGUKSS. 17i) 

subsided' many years earlier than in Rhode Ishind) ; 
and it is not improbable that the three delegates 
from that colony based their opposition to the plan 
chiefly on this ground. ^ That the ground taken by 
Stephen Hopkins, though a Rhode Island delegate, 
was diametrically opposite to this, will shortly be 
apparent. 3 

But this was not the only element of opposition 
represented in the congress. There were men in 
every colony who had watched with an interest and 
earnestness equal to that of the colonial leaders 
above referred to, the widening breach between the 
colonists and the home government on the question 
of charter rights ; and their convictions in many 
cases, their interests in others, and later their active 
co-operation, were with the government. Such an 

1 Conuocticut was one of tlie earliest states in support of the new constitu- 
tion; ratifying it in January, 1788, in less than four months after the adjourn- 
ment of the couveution. 

2 It was certainly a not unnatural ground to take, when it is remembered 
that (as Franklin stated in a letter to Governor Shirley), "the powers pro- 
posed by the Albany plaa of union * * * are not as great as those which the 
colonies of Rhode Island and Connecticut are intrusted with by their charters." 
(Franklin's " Works," III. 61). 

3 See pages 183-01, 19i-9{j. 



180 STEPHEN HOPKINS. 

one was Thomas Hutchinson of Massachusetts, the 
judicial temper of whose iiivalual)le history has hiid 
all succeeding historical scholars under deep obliga- 
tion to him ;^ such was also De Lancey- of New 
York, who presided at this "congress." Their con- 
scientious opposition as " loyalists,"^ or " tories," to 
the measures of the colonists ten years later, does 
not greatly diminish the respect felt for them. They 
acted from their convictions. The utmost desire to 

1 " To the stiuleiit,"' says Mr. Cliark-s Deane, " who seeks for the sources 
of our history, his work will always be iiiilispensable.'' {Historical Magazine. 
I. 102). 

2 See Sabine's "American loyalists." p. 240-52. A letter from .John Jay, 
Jan. 2, irrs, printeil in Sabine. I. 3511, shows that I)e Lancey retainer! liis 
warm friendsliiij. 

'.i It is interesting to notice that, out of the twenty-five members of the 
congress, about one fourth became loyalists. (See Saljine's "American loyal - 
ists;" articles, l)e Lancey, Uoward, Hutchinson, .Johnson, Penn, and .'^mith.) 
It does not appear that all took the same view of it. Hutchinson and Smith, 
as appears from their Histories, warmly supported it. The truth is, that the 
question of executive authority, coming thus early in the development of the 
American progress towards nationality, was one which could not fail to be an 
embarrassing element. It was this which, from its making the president sub- 
ject to appointment by the crown, was apparently the strongest recommenda- 
tion of the plan in the eyes of the loyalists; it was this which for the same 
reason was its strongest condemnation in the eyes of the defenders of the 
colonial charters ; and it was this which the statesmanlike forecast of such 
men as Franklin and Hopkins accepted under protest, knowing that it must 
be superseded with the growth of public sentiment. 



STATKSMANSHIP OF THE ALBANY CONGRESS. 181 

clo full justice to the toiy delegate from Rhode Isl- 
and, (Howard), who acted with them, does not 
authorize the use of the same language in his case. 
Neither by patriot nor by Io3^alist,i in the authentic 
testimony of his own time, is any such flattering 
testimony bestowed. He was, however, a man of 
more than averao-e ability, and his influence, if not 
counteracted, would have been a very marked hind- 
rance to the colonists. 

Frasdilin's own plan, fully outlined in his papers 
collected by Mr. Sparks, ^ is worthy of the most care- 
ful study, especially i:i comparison with that actually 
adopted, 3 as shown in the official record of the con- 
gress. The difference, and it is an essential dilTer- 
ence, is that Fraidvlin's original and decided prefer- 

1 " His reputation," says Sablue, " does uot appear to liave been good; nor 
does it seem that tlie calm and moderate respected liim." " Careful pens," he 
adds, "speak of his profligate character, and of his corrupt and wicked 
designs." (Sabine's "Anieiican loyalists," p. 3G'J)- A remark of his, some 
years after, (quoted in Updike's " Xarragausett Church," p. 2:21), shows that 
he took a somewhat mercenary view of his enforced removal from this colony. 

2 Franklin's " Works," III. 26-27. 

3 This also is printed in Franklin's " Works," HI. 30-55; also in R. I. His- 
torical Tract, No. •.). (".V true representation of the plan formed at Albany," 
by Stephen Hopkins, edited by S. S. Rider), p. .Ti-Sy. 

1(J 



182 STEPIIKN HOPKINS. 

ence was for an executive officer who would possess 
actual executive powers. i The congress in seveial 
instances curtailed and hedged in this power. 

As was natural, the deep-seated measures of 
Franklin ni(^t with warm opposition ; — "almost every 
article," as he states, " being contested by one or 
another."- Hut the result of the fortnii^ht's del)ate 
was, that after Ix'ing moditied in some im})ortant 
jiartictilars, his i)laii was "agreed to " ■' b}- the 
delegates, as expressing their views ; and it was 
resolved that the commissioners from the several 
ofovernments be desii'ed to lav tiie same before their 
respective constituents, for tiieir consideration f'-i and 
this is ;dl that the congress Avas in reality authorized 

1 Coiiiimi'i- tlic i)i-()visi(i)is of the 1st section, in c'lcli instance. 

■2 Letter ot .Inly 21, 1754. (Citert by Hanoroft ; " Inited States," IV. IvU). 

.'( 'I'liis hin.i;Map;e is that of the oHicial " lleconl of jiroceedings," July St, 
1754. n seems that tlieie was a very vigorons opposition, i)aiticularly on the 
part of the Connecticnt ilelejrates. Hntoliinson's stati'nient, therefore, (" His- 
tory of the piovince of Jlassachnsetts l!ay," III. 'S.\), that it was "unani- 
mously voted," cannot be correct. The error, jierhaps, arose from con- 
foundinji this vote with iliat passed earlier in the sessions of the con^jress, 
(Jnne 24, 1754), when tlie commissioncr.s did vote "unanimously" that "a 
nnion " is "at present absolutely necessary." .\s to tile specilic method, 
there was not unanimity. 

4 Hecord of pi'ocee{lini;s. .?ulv 10, 17o4. 



o 



STATESMANSHIP OF THE ALBANY CONGUESS. 183 

to do.i Fnuiklin'o per^iuisive powers and unrivallccl 
tact had in this instance achieved a striking success ; 
but it is to bo feared that some of the delegates,— to 
judge from their attitude after they returned home,— 
were but "convinced against their will," and could 
never be depended on to support the plan. It one 
<>-ljinces over the roll of the delegates,^ it will be 
difficult to find many names of those who could have 
had very hearty sympathy with it, from the consid- 
erations already uoted. In fact, there is only one 
member of the congress who appears to have had 
the same power of political prescience as Franklin in 
this matter. That member is Stephen Hopkins. 

It has been more than once remarked that these 
two New-Englanders had many characteristics in 
common. They were almost exact contemporaries. 
Franklin was born only one year earlier than Hop- 
kins, ^ and survived him K-ss than five years. ^ Both 
were Americans of a very noteworthy type and of 

1 See the instructions given by several of the colonial governments, printed 
in U. I. Historical Tract, IX. p. 3-8. 
•I See Appendix II. 

3 Franklin was l)orn Jan. 17, 1705-0; Hopkins, llarch 7, 1706-7. 

4 Hopkins died July 1.3, 1785; Franklin, April 17, 1790. 



184 .STEPHP^N HOrivINS. 

strongly in:u-kec] iiKlividiiality. In IkjUi inslunces, 
nativd al)i!ity and talents went far towards connter- 
balancing the lack ot" early opportunities for educa- 
tion. Both, in after life, were deeply impressed 
with the necessity for public education, and endeav- 
ored to secure its hlessinofs for others.^ Both were 
deeply interested in scientific studies and pursuits. ^ 
Both had a homely, hut often forcible style. ^ Both 
were fortunate, to an exceptional degree, in pos- 
sessing the power of lucid statement; and their lan- 
guage was "good English," in the sense of being clear. 
Both took pains to educate public sentiment,'* by 

1 See Bisclow's " Franklin," I. 2Ss-',)2 ; also pages 50-5'^, IIS-J:'! of this work. 

2 Sec Bigelow's " Franklin," I. -^'74-78; also page VM of this work. Hopkins 
was, in 17()8, elected to membership in the American riiilosopliical Society, 
perhaps on the suggestion or nomination of Franklin himself. (Ilecords of 
the American I'liilosophical Society, April 1, 17(58). 

3 See Tyler's " History of American literature," II. I'ol, which speaks of 
Franklin's style a.s a " pure, pithy, racy, and <lelightful diction." Compare also 
page l.f-l of this work. 

4 Of Franklin, Theodore I'arker remarks: "He knew how to deal with 
men, leading them to accept his conclusions." "He did not drive men, l)ut 
led them, and that often with a thread so delicate that they did not see it." 
(" Historic Americans," p. 44). 

Of Stephen Hopkins, Arnold says : " Very f<'w, of any state, exerted so wide 
an influence upon the destinies of the country. I'ranklin was perhaps the 
only person who ecjualled him in this respect." (Arnold's ■' Rhode Island," 
11.514). 



STATESMANSHir OF THE ALBANY GONOKESS. 185 

discussion of public to[)ics in the newspiipers, in 
pamphlets, juid in their correspondence. Both were 
distinguished by a constant tendency to expansion, 
and in any given year their position was sure to he 
one of broader outlook and more comprehensive 
intelligence, than in the previous year. Both were 
far in advance of the majority of their contempo- 
raries in perceiving the ultimate issues of the politi- 
cal tendencies then in progress.' Both of them were 
from this time forward the closest of friends, and 
constant correspondents. "2 Both met once more in 
the Continental Congress, and together signed the 
Declaration of Independence. Franklin alone, how- 
ever, survived to witness the adoption of the Con- 
stitution in 1787. 

It is from the mouth of a [)o!itical opponent, (the 

1 Franklin, says William CuUen Bryant, " saw further into the true prov- 
ince and office of a free government, anrl tlie duties of its legislators, than 
any man of his time.") "Address on the KiSth anniversary of the birth of 
Benjamin Franklin," New York, 1874, quoted inBigelow's " Franklin," I. 12). 
See also pages 180; 18.3; 18S-80, note; 19i-9(3; of this work. 

2 Probably one of the last letters of Hopkins to Franklin is that of Jlay 11, 
1784, now in possession of Mr. Henry T. Drowno, of New York. It is signed, 
" Your affectionate old friend, Stephen Hopkins." 



186 STIOrilEN HOPKINS. 

one siuninoj himselt' " Philoletlies ") ,' that wo are 
informed of Stephen Hopkins's desire that the Rhode 
Island General Assembly should give its approval 
to the [)lan. Yet even if we iiad not this testimony 
we should still have important evidenee as to his 
true sentiments. It was just ten years later- that 
he wrote : 

"Altliou^li each of the colonies Iiath a legislature within itself, 
to take care of its interests, and provide for its peace and inter- 
nal government, yet there are many things of a more general 
nature, quite out of the reach of these particular legislatures, 
which it is necessary should be regulated, ordered and gov- 
erned."^ 

And this, let it be remembered, was not merely an 
abstraction of his. It was a conclusion which he 
bad had an opportunity of forming by personal 

1 "A short reply to Jlr. Stephen Hopkins's vindication," 175.5. (Reprinted 
in R. I. Historical Tract, IX. 47-65). The authorship of this .auonvmous 
pamphlet still remains unsolved. The peculiar form of this name is such as to 
attract notice. Instead ot " Philolethes," one would naturally expect "Phil- 
ftlethos," and it is not impossible that this hitter form is the one intended by 
the writer. Whether the writer or the printer was responsible, iloes not 
appear. 

2 1765. 

.'i " The riglits of colonies e.\anuned," p. Hi. 



STATESMAXSHir OF THE ALBANY CONGRESS. 187 

observation, in liis nttenclunce upon successive con- 
gresses, so early as 1746.^ 

The congress at Albany adjourned July 11, 1754. 
The Rhode Island General Asseniljly was not at that 
time in session; but one of the earliest matters 
brouo-ht before the attention of that body, on its re- 
assembling at Newport, in August, was the report 
of the two commissioners, dated August 20, 1754, 
and signed by them both ; — Stephen Hopkins and 
Martin Howard, Jr.- This simply stated the facts 
in the case, presented a copy of the proceedings of 
the congress, with the "Representation" reported by 
the committee, and the plan of union itself; submit- 
ting the whole, as they say, " to the consideration of 
this Honorable Assembly." This would certainly 
appear to be the very least that they could do. The 
General Assembly therefore " accepted " the report ; 

1 That he was a supporter of the plan also seems probable from the state- 
ment of one of his colleagues, Smith of New York, that •' the eastern colonies 
were most ardent for the union, except Connecticut." "Each colony," 
Smith adds, " took a copy under a promise to exert their influence upon their 
constituents." (Smith's "New York," 11. 2-25). Stephen Hopkins is the only 
one who went so far, however, as to publish a pamphlet in its behalf, 

2 R. I. Col. Records, V. .39.'?-94. 



188 STErnp:N iiorKiNS. 

"reserving to themt^elves a farther consideration, 
whether they will accede to the general plan pro- 
posed." ' Yet in various written and spoken charges 
of the time, Mr. Hopkins is denounced as having 

'• presented to the General Assembly, a number of sheets in 
folio, in which were contained a variety of matters, and the plan 
of nuion artfully tack'd to the rest, which being read in the 
Lower House, the report was received, and, in consequence all 
their doings, &c."' 

It is sufficient to say that these assertions are 
entirely at variance with the official records, cited 
above. 

It will be observed that the lanofuaijc of the above 
charge shows evidence of excitement. That such a 
plan of union should be brought into Rhode Island 
did in fact, produce no little excitement. Almost 
its ver}^ first provision was that there should be "a 
president-general, to I)e appointed and supported by 
the croivn.'"'^ And this in a charter colony^ like 

1 R. I. Col. Records, v. 394. 2 R. I. Hist. Tract, TX. 58. 

3 Printed in Franklin's " Works," III. V. 

4 This feature certainly goes far to explain the popular excitement against 
the plan. Those could easily condemn it on this ground who had not looked 
beyond this to observe the very democratical .system of representation embod- 



STATESMANSIIU* OF THK ALBANY CONGRESS. 189 

Rhode Ishiiid ! A lettei-' was soiit to the General 
Assembly, early in 1755, by Governor Greene, in 
which the subjoct was nr^od upon tlio immediate 
attention of that body. Among other things, he 
pronounced it " a scheme which if carried into exe- 
cution, will virtually deprive this government, at 
least, of some of its most valuable privileges ;" and 
he su2:2'osted that instructions l)e sent to the agent 
of the colony, "that he exert himself to the utmost, 
in order to prevent the said plan of union" "being 
carried or passed into an act of the parliament of 
Great Britain."^ At this session therefore it was voted 
that a " letter to l)e sent to the agent " should direct 
him : 

" To be upon his watch; and if any thing shall be moved in 
parliament respecting the plan lor an union of his Majesty's 
northern colonies projected at Albany, which may have a ten- 
dency to infringe on onr charter privileges, that he use his 

icd ill if. But what otliir metliod of clioosiiif; a cliief executive otiicer was 
open to them? Certainly not that of election by the colonies themselves. The 
time was not ripe for .'>o radical a measure of iudeiicndonce; and this Franklin 
and nopkins knew very well. 

1 Printed in U. I. Hist. Tract, IX. 00-01, wlici-c it is cited by " IMiilolethcs." 

1! K. I. Hist. Tract, IX. 01. 



190 STEPHEN HOPKINS. 

Utmost endeavors to get it put off until such time as the govern- 
ment is furnislied with a copy, and have opportunity of making 
answer thereunto." ' 

It was after the subject had thus been pretty well 
turned over and canvassed, that Mr. Hopkins him- 
self entered the field with a pamphlet,'^ dated March 
29, 17o5.3 This pamphlet has none of the elevated 
qualities of style observed in his historical writings'* 
and discussions of the rights of colonies,-'' subse- 
quently published, nor has it anything In common 
with his electioneering pamphlets, issued within the 
next few 3'ears.^ Its interest lies in its lucid, busi- 
ness-like statement of facts, carefull}^ sifting from 
them the erroneous and unwarranted assertions then 
current. He ingeniously refrained from a single 
syllable of direct argument in favor of the plan ;" but 

1 R. I. Col. Records, V. 4J4. 

2 "A true representation of the plan formed at Albany, for unitin»- all the 
British northern colonies, in order to their common safety and defence." By 
Stephen Hoplvins. Providence, IMarch 20, 1705. lieprinted in R. I. Hist. Tract, 
IX. 1-4G. 

.3 The month and day as well as the year, are occasionally given in imprints 
of pamphlets belonging to this period. 

4 See page I'M. 5 See Chapter VHI. 

() See Chapter VII. 

7 R. I. Hist. Tract, IX. 40-40. His opponent somewhat unreasonably finds 
fBuH with this. (R. I. Hist. Tract, IX. 65). 



STATESMANSHIP OF THK ALBANY CONGRKSS. 191 

by printing- the instriicticnis of tlio home government 
to the colonial assemblies/ the instructions of some 
of these assemblies to their respective commissioners, 2 
the proceedings of the congress in relation to the 
"plan of union," ^ and the text of the plan itself,'' he 
effectually confuted the misrepresentations which 
had been made I)y his oi)ponents. 

This [)amphlct was followed l)y another, in reply 
to it, and issued over the signature of " Philolethes,"^ 
which is a wonderfully good s[)ecimen of the pamph- 
let literature of that day, repeating mis-statements 
which had already been exposed, and even reckless 
in its misrepresentations. It appears to have over- 
shot its mark, fen- though it was issued just in time^ 
to bring an intUience to bear on the election in May, 
Stephen Hopkins was then found to be elected gov- 
ernor ; with an assembly prepared for the most part 
to listen to whatever measures he mio^ht brino- to 
their attention. Yet although at the October session 

1 R.I. Hist. Tract, IX. S-13. 

2 Ibid., IX. 3-8. ;{ Ibid., IX. 15-31. 
4 Ibid., IX.32-3y. 

6 Tlie full title has already been given, .^ee page 187, note. 
6 It is dated, "Ai)ril 10. 175.J." 



192 STEPHEN iioriviNS. 

in 1755, the members of this hotly readily appointed^ 
His Honor tlic Governor one of the commissioners 
to another of those colonial cong'resses, it was per- 
haps because they believed that no "plan of union " 
was to be, or was likely to be, called up for action 
at its sessions. 

For llhoilc Island was not the only colon}' which 
turned the cold shoulder to Franklin's plan. That 
plan was not approved by a single one- of the colon- 
ial assemldies Ix^fore Avhich it was brought; and 
when the matter came in due course to the attention 
of [)arliament in September or October, 1751, that 
very home government which had been so strenuous 
ill urging upon the colonists the idea of " union and 
confederation," suddenly found that the colonists 
were takiu"" the re(U)mmciid:ition not only too liter- 

1 K. 1. < ol. liecord;-, A'. 4(i4. This coii.s^ress ai>i(ears to liave been Ir-UI at 
Albany in Dfccmber. Sc(> letter of Stephen Hopkins to Mrs. Anne Smith, 
dated " December ."ith, 17o.j." in the possession of Miss Ruth H. Sniitli. 

'Z The General ( 'ourt of Massachusetts IJay liad specifically instructed its 
delegates on the matter of entering into " articles of union and confedera- 
tion;"' and this was the only government which did give these instructions. 
(.Sparks's " \^'(lrks of IJenjamiu Franklin," III.:.':!). I!ut a 15oston town- 
meeting lield ;ifter the adjournment of the congress vigorously denounced the 
plan. (" Collections of the Arassachu<etls Uistoriciil Society," IM series, I\'. 
bb). 



STATESMANSHIP OF THE ALBANY CONGRESS. 193 

ally but too liberally. No action was ever taken on 
it in England.^ 

Yet there is no contribution to constructive states- 
manship preceding the year 177G, Avliich had a pro- 
founder efTect on the subsequent growth and devel- 
opment of the idea of American nationality. Even 
in the amended form in which it was " approved" by 
the congress, it was, says a recent writer, "in 
advance of the Articles [of Confederation] in its 
national spirit, and served as the prototype of the 
constitution itself." ~ There was to be a central 
authority, 2 self-sustaining,"* and obligatory upon the 
component members of the government. The sep- 
arate colonies Vv'ere not to be represented^ equally, 
but in proportion to population ; and it was the 

1 " The Board of ti-aile," says Franklin, " dkl not api)rove of it, nor recom- 
mend it for the approbation of H is :jlajesty." (IJigelow's " Franklhi," I. 309). 

2 "The articles of confederation vs. the constitution," by L. Bradford 
I'rince, (since Cliief-justice of New Slexico), p. 19. 

3 Franklin's " Works," III. 37. The ill-considered departure from this 
principle, in the .\rticles of confederation, is noteworthy. 

•I But not self-perpetuating. 

5 As printed in Franklin's " Works," III. 40. 

17 



194 STEPHEN HOPKINS. 

general government which had the power to lay 
taxes, ^ and to raise and paj" soldiers.- Every one 
of these features re-appeared in the constitution^ of 
the United States, thirty-three years later ; and after 
a most disastrous trial had been made of an opposite 
method. 4 Franklin was in advance of his time, it is 
true; but he had examined and forecast, says jMr. 
Sparks, "with an almost prophetic sagacity, the 
habits, wants, temper, and other characteristics of 
the people."^ 

Yet while the statesmanship of the Albany con- 
gress is Franklin's beyond a question, some part of 
the credit of it must be considered as justly due to 
that man who had the clearness of vision and en- 
lightened forecast, to see farther than those around 
him in his narrow colony ; and who not only upheld 

1 As priiiffd in Kiiuiklin'.s " Works," HI. 50-51. 

2 Ibid., HI. 41). 

3 Compare Art. 2, Sect. 2 and :>>; Art. 1, Sect. 2, No. 3; Art. 1, Sect. 8, No. 
1; Art. 1, Scct.-S, Nos. 12-1(). 

4 111 the Articles of confederation. Compare Art.!), 10; Art. 5; Art. 9, 
1st and fltli paragraplis. 

5 Sparks's " Works of lU'iijamin Franklin," HI. 57. 



STATESMANSHIP OF THE ALBANY CONGRESS. 195 

the plan of union in the congress, ^ but advocated it 
against overwiielming odds, among a people bitterly 
opposed both to it, and to the principle on which it 
rested.^ And this was not all. It was "the proper 
reception of" the principles developed by the leaders 
of the Albany congress, says Chancellor Kent, "in 
the minds of their countrymen," which "prepared 
the way for their future independence and our 
present greatness."^ It was the reception of these 
l)rinciples by the people of Khode Island, pressed 
upon their attention with the most persistent indus- 
try, and with the aid of every agency of tongue, pen, 
type, or personal influence, during the next twenty 
years, which prepared the least interested of the 
thirteen colonies to take a spirited and distinguished 
part in the contest which followed. The history of 

1 Whether Hopkins was one of tliose who, as Franklin says, "had form'd 
plans of the same kind," (Bigelow's " Franklin," I. 308), does not appear. He 
was, however, a member of the special committee of seven appointed " to 
prepare and receive plans or schemes for the union of the colonies, and to 
digest them into one general plan." (" Uecord of proceedings," June 24, l~o4); 
a committee which is pronounced by Frothiugham " a rare combination of 
character, intellect, learning, and experience in public atlairs." ("Iliseof 
the republic," p. HO). a See pages 170-<'.». 

.3 Kent's " Commenjarics on American law," Ed. 1^7:>, I. 204. 



19(3 STEPHEN HOPKINS. 

no other colony, perhaps, presents such an instance 
of a public man deliberately setting himself to shape 
public opinion, and to develop a public sentiment 
which should sustain and heartily approve the 
measures to be undertaken. " Every statesman," 
savs Mr. Lecky, " who is worth}' of the name, will 
carefully calculate the effect of his measures u[)on 
opinion," and "will esteem the creation of a sound, 
healthy, and loyal public spirit one of the highest 
objects of legislation." 1 

The creation of such a public spirit is what most 
strikingly characterizes Stephen Hopkins: and it is 
npon this ground that a statesmanship of the most 
enlightened character may justly be ascribed to him. 

1 Lecky's " Leaders ol public opinion in Ireland," p. viii. 



